


Laeta Mecum

by Beatsie_Boy



Series: Laeta Mecum [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: A lot of them - Freeform, BAMF Marlene McKinnon, Butt Jokes, Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Harry Potter In Love, He gets the love he deserves, I wrote this while in quarantine, Jokes, Male-Female Friendship, Meant To Be, No Smut, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pranks, Realistic Relationships, Sex Jokes, Sirius Black Never Went to Azkaban, Soft Boys, Strong Female Characters, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Viscenya black only cares for food, but - Freeform, everybody gets to be happy, fart jokes, for a while, harry is raised properly for once, he doesn't know it, homour, hopelessly in love, is also done, james and sirius play matchmaker, lily is done, serious stuff happens, slow build Harry Potter/ original Female Character, the potters survive, we're talking about James's son
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:06:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 44,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23258881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beatsie_Boy/pseuds/Beatsie_Boy
Summary: Euphemia Potter sacrificed her life for her family's safety thereby extending her protection to the remaining Potters and Sirius Black. Harry gets to grow up with love and care and a best friend. Viscenya Black and Harry Potter have always been in love, its forms just change as they grow up together. they laugh, they cry, they rejoice together. They also play pranks, loads of them, together. Joke around, goof off and be regular children together. Yes, they know that their lives are in danger mostly all the time and that a psychopath is after Harry's life, but they'll get through it. As they do, together.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Original Female Character(s), James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Remus Lupin/Original Female Character(s), Sirius Black/Marlene McKinnon
Series: Laeta Mecum [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1980713
Comments: 30
Kudos: 55





	1. Prologue : Sacrifice and Love

**Author's Note:**

> I've had an idea for a long time, after reading multiple fics did I have enough inspiration to get through with this. To be honest it was mostly just staying in quarantine that got me to get on with it. The story will stay mostly light-hearted except for occasional bits of seriousness when called for. I'll try to stay away from dark themes, cause I don't get on well with those. This is the prologue and its events take place elsewhere and in the past, that is why it's all in italics, the next chapter will be on par with the timeline.
> 
> I can't promise timely updates, but for now, they will be frequent. suggestions and criticism is always welcome :)  
> stay safe and healthy, beautiful people.
> 
> also: I don't own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling does. the name Viscenya is from the ' ASOIAF' universe although the spelling has been tweaked a bit.

**_30 th October 1981_ **

**_Malfoy Manor_ **

* * *

_“Reveal where they are and you shall be rewarded.” The snake-like man hissed. His wand pointed at a woman, she wasn’t young, but she wasn’t old either, she had dignified aristocratic features, a pureblood. The same features morphed into one of disgust as she defiantly held her own._

_“Even if I knew, I would never let the secret out to you. He’s my son! My family, my blood! Your rewards don’t mean anything to me; I’d die a thousand times over just so that you could meet your end. Save everyone’s time and kill me now, I’ll never bow down, not to a man like you.” She snapped out with whatever energy she had left. She’d been captured the day before, left in a cell to rot, starved and then finally subjected to the Cruciatus when she wouldn’t loosen her tongue. Today the Dark Lord himself decided to have a go._

_Euphemia Potter was a strong woman. Unlike most pureblood women she didn’t bend to others’ will, she wasn’t submissive. Although, **like** most pureblood women, she loved her family. If given a chance she’d die for them. Her family wasn’t as large as she’d hoped. But it was more than enough. James, Fleamont and Sirius were the loves of her life. Like a mamma lion (she **was** a true Gryffindor) she would protect them. Lily too was like a daughter to her, and darling Harry had stolen everyone’s hearts the moment he opened his big green eyes to them. These five people meant more to her than the world and she’d be damned if she let anything happen to them. _

_“There are no men like me” he hissed again, pressing his wand deeper into her throat._

_“There are always men like you, and they always lose, just like you will. You’re not a man, you’re a monster! As long as there’s good in the world, as long as there’s love in people’s hearts, you will lose. Kill me then, my life doesn’t matter to me so long as those I care about l\survive.” she murmured, clearly tired and done with the game Voldemort was playing._

_“You think you’re being brave, blood traitor’s such as yourself often think that, you’re foolish that’s all you are. Power this potent goes wasted every time people like you decide to stick up for scum. You scoff at my ideas now, but what will you do when the very essence of magic, the very purity of it will be adulterated by the same mudbloods and half breeds that you so desperately cleave to. The Potter’s are an old family, a pure family, and I don’t relish in shedding pure magical blood. Tell me where they are now and save your life. Tell me where they are and I’ll save your son and the mudblood he carries around with him. Only the boy needs to die. Tell.Me.Where.They.Are.” he accentuated every word with a deeper jab into her throat. He red eyes were livid; whatever composure he’d maintained over the last few minutes was crumbling._

_The Dark Lord had had his fair share of stubborn dissenters. Those who claimed to hate the very ground he walked on, usually a good threat would get to them (Wormtail, snivelling brat that he was, was a good example). But never had he encountered a person who was so defiant in their beliefs that they’d rather face death than succumb. He wanted to spare her life; she was from an old family, and influential family. She had old magical blood flowing through her veins. But she was just so damn stubborn. Frankly, anyone who disagreed with him annoyed him, but Gryffindors in their ‘holier-than-thou’ splendour got to him the worst._

_But he was the Dark Lord, legions of wizards bowed before him. He knew exactly what to do. He stepped back, and in his clear voice called out “Bring in the man”._

_A flurry of activity took place. Figures rose from the shadows of the dimly lit room, voices started to ring out from beyond the cell; Euphemia could hear the shuffling of robes and the scuttle of footsteps even with the damaged senses. Her heart filled with dread for she never knew if they’d captured Fleamont or not. She knew deep down that he wasn’t dead if he were then the death eater scum wouldn’t have wasted a second to shove it in her face. She knew her husband was strong; he was an Auror, almost up for promotion. He had faced so much; surely he wouldn’t let snivelling bastards like these to take over._

_She was brought out of her reverie as her gaze landed on a man whose robes were raggedy, hair dishevelled, and face bloody. She would have denied at first glance that the man was her husband but as the man opened his eyes, the lovely brown of his irises confirmed that he was, in fact, Fleamont Potter. Her heart shattered at the sore sight. No longer was he the same Fleamont who even with his unkempt hairstyle looked handsome, the man before her looked broken, not physically but in every other way possible. His eyes lit up just barely as he saw her. Love shone in them all the same, but this time he was too tired, too worn out and simply too weak to convey much else. He knew in his core that he’d never compromise his son’s family, not that he knew where they were, but even if he did, he’d never. He would rather die._

_Dolohov roughly grabbed him by his neck and shoved him at his master’s feet. Fleamont didn’t fight him, he just couldn’t. “The lady Potter seems to be too honourable to see what is right, too noble. Perhaps she needs a bit of… incentive” he finished evilly as an equally evil look flashed in his servant’s eyes. Without skipping a beat his wand was out and a silent Cruciatus was cast upon the Potter patriarch. His gut-wrenching cries tore through the silence, Euphemia felt like crying out as well with her love. The man that she loved so deeply was now being subjected to unfathomable torture and she could do very little about it. The only way to stop it was to speak up and she already explained why she wouldn’t do it. She forced her face to remain impassive, to not let any emotion show, it was difficult but she did, she focused on Harry’s happy cries, his mindless babble, she focused on anything and everything that would take her away from this misery._

_Fleamont’s cries eventually stopped after what felt like hours and could very well be that long. Voldemort had at this point lost all semblance of sanity and was now very close to stomping his feet on the ground like a petulant child. Nothing seemed to work on them! He tried ligillimency and found nothing suspicious, but after being in the minds of several highly trained wizards and witches alike, he now knew to not completely trust the visions he saw._

_“I tried to show you mercy yet you chose to walk over me. I gave you a choice and now you’ve made it. Think long and hard Lady Potter, you do not need to die, you have your final chance, speak up now or see the man you love die.” his cold voice spoke with malice._

_“We may not have lived a long life, but we’ve lived a happy one, we’ve seen love, we’ve seen joy and now, we’ve seen pure evil. There’s nothing more left for us to do. Do you think that we’re scared of what lies beyond? We’ll be alive in the memories of those who love us and that’s all that matters.” Euphemia spoke with authority, she very well knew that she was going to die. And in these final moments, she felt that she needed to be stronger than ever. She focused on the five faces of those that mattered even at times including sweet Remus and Peter in the recollections. She let the love she felt for the people she was protecting fill her as she saw Voldemort lift his wand._

_Her husband had probably already died; she saw a flash of green go by in her periphery. But she couldn’t break down now, she had to be **strong.** “Avada Kedavra” she heard being muttered as a flash of brilliant green erupted from the tip of the yew wand held in pale lifeless hands. The green that would’ve scared others felt welcoming to her. she imagined looking into Harry’s loving eyes that ironically held the same colour. The light hit her and without a cry, her body slumped forward as all life left it. The lifeless body was now on the floor along with that of her husband’s, no one in the room spoke, not because they felt remorseful, but only because they were trying to think about what to do next. _

_“Clear them out” the Dark Lord muttered, and with a swish of his robes, he left the dimly lit dungeon._

* * *

_As he left, one of many Death eaters stationed around the corridor too picked up his pace and started to make his way out of the building, the man was one Severus Snape. Ever since he’d heard what his lord planned for the Potter family he’d decided to switch sides, and now as an informant behind enemy lines, it was his job to be the eyes and ears of Albus Dumbledore, and he needed to hear about what had just happened. Two of the most prominent Order members had just been killed, all in Voldemort’s pursuit of Lily and her family. By the looks of it, Voldemort would not stop till he got what he wanted, he was set in his belief that it was Harry who was destined to be his end and nobody could tell him otherwise._

_Snape muttered an obscure excuse and walked to the ends of the Manor’s premises, out of the anti-apparition wards and disapparated to deliver the news to Dumbledore in person. This was sensitive information and he couldn’t risk getting caught sending a letter and being in cohorts with the leader of the Light side._

_Meanwhile, in the Malfoy Manor, the Dark Lord was sitting at the head of the long table, making it obvious to even the most inobservant that he was the one who actually controlled the power, not Lucius who was, in fact, the legal owner of the building._

_Beside him on his knees stood Peter Pettigrew, sniffling and whimpering without any proper reason to. The Lord spoke in his clear voice, “What news do you bring Wormtail?”_

_Even though he never showed any weakness, it was slightly evident that he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to deal with the incompetency that usually ensued whenever a matter concerned the pathetic excuse of a man that was Peter. The man in question himself knew from countless misadventures that an angry Voldemort wasn’t good for anybody least of all the person who put him in that mood._

_He knew his master needed rest and he knew that his master wouldn’t do well with dealing with another person today, but the news was important and basically the Holy Grail they were looking for. He knew that if he kept the information from his lord for more than a second longer, he would in all probability die. So without going through the usual salutations he jumped right in and said “The Potter’s have made me the secret keeper. It was Black before but now they deemed me worthy and unnoticeable enough to keep them hidden”_

_Bright red eyes that were once closed in exhaustion now shot open, his grip on the chair handle tightened as his thoughts ran around in a whirlwind. This new information triggered a series of emotions and thoughts that were going by too fast for the experienced wizard to comprehend._

_He stood up, incarcerated Wormtail wordlessly, brought him close and hissed into his face “Where are they?” Peter struggled to answer as the ropes tightened incredibly painfully across his throat before they loosened considerably. “G-Go-Godric’s Hollow” he choked out before the spell was removed and he slumped forward gagging and coughing. A quick sweep of Peter’s mind told Voldemort that the information was, in fact, authentic and he allowed himself to rejoice._

_As Wormtail looked up, he saw his master in all his glory, a sinister smile on his face. He rolled his head around as if stretching out. “Thank you Wormtail, you shall be rewarded” he spoke in his cold, high voice._

_On 30 th October 1981, Lord Voldemort knew where his potential enemy lived; all that was left was to get his parents out of the way and to kill the barely one-year-old child. His dreams of world domination would now come true, with no one to stop them, not even a simpering brat who could barely even say a word. The Dark Lord would rise stronger than ever after having killed Harry Potter and finally would the world realize the truth behind his words. People would flock to him and support his cause, magic would reign. _

_Little did he know that killing Harry Potter wouldn’t be easy? For the sacrifice Euphemia made would keep Harry safe, it would make sure that the five people she loved and thought about before dying would triumph, always._


	2. Halloween Night (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily and James try to retain some normalcy even though they're in lockdown, but that normalcy can last only so long.  
> Find out exactly how Potter's survived when Voldemort attacked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was initially not supposed to be split in two. I just felt that if I were to go on, then it would force a lot on the readers, thereby shoving a lot of information down your throats.  
> Most writers don't have a problem writing long chapters, but with my writing style, it gets really difficult for me to keep it light. Had this chapter not been one of two parts, then I know for a fact that it would not have made sense.  
> .  
> I didn't think that writing this chapter would've taken me this long, considering the fact that I started with it a long time back. It's just that whenever I had to look up something for research, I'd end up crying my eyes out over Lily and James's tragic death. That's partly the reason why I was big on writing a story where they survive Halloween night.  
> .  
> All constructive criticism is welcome and I would love to get to know your opinions about this chapter. Feel free to call me out on stuff that you feel is important or can perhaps make the writing better :)  
> .  
> Again, I don't own Harry Potter, all rights belong to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

**31 st October 1981**

**Godric’s Hollow**

**Potter Residence**

“Viscenya looks disturbingly a lot like Sirius, I mean, a _lot_ like Sirius,” James Potter thought aloud to nobody in particular as he cleared the dinner table away. There was no one in the room there with him; Lily was in Harry’s room trying to wrestle him into his overalls. Of course, James didn’t know of it. Despite being an Auror in training he could easily lose awareness of his surroundings when he got into his thoughts. His brain was a wild place; conspiracy theories flew around its quarters as a million thoughts passed by every moment. Though Harry was the official child in this household James gave him tough competition

You’d think that as someone who was supposed to be on the hit-list of one of the darkest wizards of all time, he’d have better things to worry about, but right now the only thing that bothered him was how uncanny the resemblance of his goddaughter was to his best friend. It wasn’t as if he didn’t understand the severity of the situation, of course, he did. Better than anyone, the most important people in his life were threatened and by the Dark Lord no less. Ever since Dumbledore came up to them and told them of the prophecy, he had had a bad time trying to reign in his thoughts, of course, drinking would at times help, but he didn’t want to miss another moment with his family, only because he was too cowardly to face his problems consciously.

He was worried, oh so worried for his Harry. He’d only just gotten what he’d dreamed about ever since he realized he was in love with Lily Evans. He had plans for the two of them, he wanted a big family, seven kids, probably a dog (to see if Sirius would get jealous or not) and just a happy life. Lily, on the other hand, told him that no matter how much she loved him, she’d never have seven kids and that Sirius would most definitely get jealous and would probably riot if they ever tried to replace him with a regular dog. She didn’t contest his want for a happy life though, that she wanted desperately. After living with her dysfunctional family, Lily too had dreams of living with those she loved and being content.

But after the news was dropped on them, James realized that there was a major chance they would not make it out alive at the end. Of course, they’d taken all the precautions they could. They’d put their house under the Fidelius charm and completely cut off their contact with the outside world. With this seclusion, it was easy for his thoughts to turn dark, that’s why nowadays he tried his best to focus on trivial matters that nobody cared about. To keep his thoughts happy and light, and right now the resemblance that Viscenya bore to her father seemed to intrigue him to no end.

“What’s got your wand in a knot?” Lily said very eloquently as she came into his view. “Who says I’ve got my wand in a knot?” rebutted James.

“I do, you’ve got your thinking face on.” She said in a ‘matter-of-fact’ voice. After spending eleven years with the guy, he was very easy for Lily to read, not that James was ever hard to read. The bloke was an open book. And after being in a relationship of five years with the said bloke she also learnt of his unnatural obsession with the Kennedy Assassination. Upon realizing where this conversation could lead to she quickly amended, “I swear to Merlin James if it’s another one of your conspiracy theories I will most definitely break your arm!”

“Kinky”

Let’s just say that Lily was not amused. As was evident from the deadpan way she was looking at her husband.

After eleven years of being on the receiving end of the same look, James now knew better than to push it and sought to defend himself.

“First of all, this time it’s not a theory, it’s an observation. Second of all, don’t pretend as if you don’t enjoy it when I come up with one, you’re just as interested in them as I am!” he said indignantly. 

“What’s the observation then?” Lily asked, completely disregarding the other stuff. “You didn’t deny it.” James pointed out cheekily, but he didn’t fancy sleeping on the couch, so he went on to explain what was bothering him.

“I just thought that Viscenya looked an awful lot like Sirius. I mean yeah, there _are_ bits of Marlene in her, especially in the glares, by the way, she’s not even one, who taught her how to glare? Bet it was you. Back to the point, she looks so much like Sirius! I mean if she weren’t a girl, I would have thought that she was baby Sirius. Even Regulus didn’t look _that_ alike to his brother, and he was his brother!” he paused to take a breath.

And launched right back in “What intrigues me though is how much she looks like Sirius and there are still traces of Marlene in her but despite all of that she comes out to look like Sirius in the big picture. That Charles Darwin bloke would’ve had a field day with her.” he finished.

If that rollercoaster of an explanation left you confused, it just left Lily questioning every life choice she had ever made.

“What?” she asked, completely done with… well, with everything in general, but more specifically her husband. Before James could go back to explaining the mess that his brain had come up with, thereby completely misunderstanding Lily, he heard a loud cry come from Harry’s room. Lily groaned in frustration as James and she both went up to check what was wrong. Harry wasn’t a difficult baby per se. He cried when he needed to be changed and babbled whenever he was happy. (Recently his babbles had started to become more coherent which ensued a wager between James and Sirius, to see whose name would be Harry’s first word.)

Regardless, Harry was a baby, and he was bound to have tantrums now and then. Lily and James understood this and made their way to his bedroom after going up the staircase. As soon as they neared the crib, Lily started cooing in her baby voice as she moved to hold Harry in her arms, but James beat her to it as he picked him up swiftly and started rocking him sideways. Even after being with James for almost five years, Lily loved to see his soft and caring side, one that didn’t think too much about his reputation, one that didn’t hesitate to cry at the simplest things (he once started crying after he saw a couple of baby ducks being led by their mother). As she looked fondly at him, she thought over what James had told her before and abruptly said, “Viscenya is bound to look like Sirius, that’s what happens when you’re related to someone Jay.”

“You’re still on about that stuff?” James asked incredulously as if he hadn’t been the one to go breathless over trying to explain this ‘observation’ to her just a minute ago. “You’re the one who brought it up!” Lily rebutted.

“Honestly Lilyflower we’re adults, we shouldn’t be discussing what our goddaughter looks like!” he reprimanded.

He then shifted his attention to Harry and started doing his god awful baby voice, “Besides- that’s Harry job isn’t it? Yes, it is, yes it is! You and Visy are going to get married someday, you’ll love her, you’ll marry her and you’ll raise the next generation of Marauders. Merlin, I can see it happen already” James ended wistfully.

Lily held out her hand as if to stop him and said, “First of all, they’re not ‘destined’ for each other, second; please don’t force _your_ heterosexuality on my son, third; _your_ obsession is creepy and should stop.”

“Oi! I’m not forcing anything on anyone; I’m just saying that it’d be nice if they got together, and frankly much easier. I know for a fact that Harry won’t need to worry about asking for her hand from Sirius, he’ll probably give it to him even before they’d start dating!” James replied indignantly.

“See? You’re on about it again, I just can’t understand-“Lily was cut off in the middle of her tirade by another cry from Harry, he had only just calmed down, but the noise from the argument had probably triggered something. Both of them immediately shut up, and now tried a different tactic, almost as if they had read each other’s minds, James wordlessly gave Harry over to Lily as she took hold of him with ease. She started to rock him gently as James took out his wand and conjured smoke. 

In addition to the magic, James also started making faces at harry who now had stopped his crying in awe of the display (the display of the smoke mind you, not James’s weird albeit funny facial expressions).

Just a few seconds of his parents’ attention had Harry change from a wailing infant to a now giggling baby. The sound of his laughter brought immense relief to both Lily and James. For in these difficult times; it was only Harry that truly brought them any happiness. He was sort of an escape from the harsh reality. Harry in all his purity and innocence was the most perfect coping mechanism they could ask for. Lily looked over at her two favourite boys. The sheer joy that they brought to her was more than anything she could have asked for. She could be given the universe in the bargain, yet she wouldn’t trade these two for it.

Lily so desperately wanted to send over a picture of this happy moment to the Blacks and Euphemia. Lily’s mother in law was smitten with Harry. She always said that he was her favourite grandchild, to which James reminded her that he was her _only_ grandchild. Before being sent into hiding, their meetings were very frequent. After that, not many people knew of their location, but they made it a point to keep selected members of the Order informed. Fleamont and Euphemia and Sirius were a few of them. Euphemia refused to miss a single day of Harry growing up but had to relent and compromised to receive just two letters a week that updated them of the major happenings. Along with their parents and Sirius, Dumbledore also knew of their address. However, once the prophecy was made, they needed to shut **all** contact from the outside world. The letters that they exchanged before, however scarce they were, had to be stopped. Lily and James now knew nothing of what was going on. Peter was the only one beside them that knew and he had yet to visit them.

As Lily realized that there was no actual way for her to contact the others now, her thoughts turned a shade sombre. But that just made her cherish what she had now even more. She went back to rocking Harry and was just about to mention something when she heard a loud bang. It came from down below as if the door had been blasted off. Nobody beside Peter knew of their location as was mentioned before. Peter had told them that he had to visit his ailing mother and therefore would be out of town for a while. It couldn’t have been Peter then. The loud bang, the abruptness of it all, Peter’s shifty behaviour all the time, and the fact that this happened just a day after they’d made Peter the secret keeper. It all had to mean…

It didn’t take her long to connect the dots, to understand that they’d been compromised. Peter had betrayed them.

Voldemort was here.

In a fraction of a second, her thoughts went from being a neat assortment of happiness and love to a scrambled mess of panic and hysteria. All that was going inside her head, however, did not show outside, as she held Harry tighter and moved her panic gaze around trying to meet James’s eye.

James, after hearing the sound knew in an instant they were now no longer safe, the Auror training kicked in as he started unscrambling his thoughts and tried to focus on the next plan of action. It was obvious that he had to somehow find a way to keep Voldemort off, long enough for Lily to find a way to get to safety.

“Lily, take Harry and go! It’s him! I’ll hold him off!” James said trying desperately to form coherent thoughts.

The Lily from before would have argued, Voldemort or no, she would never let James go into danger by himself. But again, that was Lily from before. This time Lily had to protect not just herself but her little bundle of joy as well. Her usually strong resolve melted away as she did nothing but nod.

James rushed down the stairs, wand in hand as Lily bolted the door, piled furniture in front of it and added the best protective enchantments she knew. She wasn’t stupid and therefore she knew that if push came to shove Voldemort wouldn’t mind blasting this door off the same way he did before. Her enchantments wouldn’t do anything then, but it gave her a sort of comfort in knowing that she had done the best she could. Besides she didn’t want to dwell on the dire possibilities that were entirely too probable.

* * *

James reached the bottom of the staircase to see a figure in black, not much could be seen of his face because of the long black hood that cast a shadow over it. This was now the fourth time that James had come face to face with Voldemort. This time as well, he was scared out of his wits. Unlike the first three times though, now there was so much more at stake. Everything that ever mattered to James was now in danger; with that thought at the back of his mind, he forced himself to stand tall, to not waiver.

Voldemort upon seeing James wasn’t surprised. He had dealt with the young man before, and if their previous ‘interactions’ were anything to go by, he knew that James Potter was as Gryffindor as they came, talented? Yes, but also incredibly foolish. Just like his parents. Voldemort knew that getting rid of him won’t be difficult. Yes, he had escaped his clutches three times before but that was out of sheer luck. This time, Voldemort had no time to waste, he wouldn’t play around. That’s why with a lazy flick of his wand he cast the killing curse at Potter. He had expected him to fall over as a result of the curse hitting him; he had expected him to try to dodge the curse or to try to repel it by using a shield charm. What he hadn’t expected though was that the boy would use Earth as a shield.

What James did was that he manipulated the Earth beneath him to erect a thick shield that physically stopped the curse from hitting him. This wasn’t necessarily tricky magic, but not many knew of it. As the physical barrier was struck with the jet of green, it immediately crumbled. Red eyes met Hazel, as Voldemort looked at James, vaguely impressed that the grossly inexperienced boy knew enough to think this way. Had James used a magical shield, the force and the intent behind the curse would’ve easily broken through it.

After the initial shock, all hell broke loose, spell after spell was fired. Voldemort was ruthless, he had come here expecting a fight, he wanted one even, but he hadn’t wanted it to stretch out as much as it did. There was no denying that the Potter boy was young and inexperienced, but he knew his way around magic very well for someone who had become a proper Auror only a year ago. All spells that he shot at him either met another one of James’s halfway or was blocked rather efficiently. Yes, the strain of fighting a battle was getting to James, as was evident from the random cuts and scrapes on face courtesy of some stray spells. But he fought back; by god did he fight back. He had everything on the line here!

The resilience that would have made Voldemort respect him had he been on the Dark side, now only added to the hatred that the Dark Lord bore him. With a snarl, he shouted “ _Crucio!”_ as he pointed his wand at James, who only ducked low in response to dodge the spell by a few millimetres.

This was opportunity enough for the Dark Lord, who now wanted to drag out the Potter heir’s pain. Which is why he simply didn’t choose to kill him but instead opted for something that would make sure that the boy writhed and suffered in pain, no it wasn’t another Cruciatus, for that would make it impossible for James to keep a record of the rest of the world. Voldemort wanted James to suffer, yes a Cruciatus would hurt, but what would hurt more was if the man heard his wife begging for mercy, only to not be given it. Voldemort wanted James to suffer not just out of physical agony, but also out of the mental pain he would go through as he heard everyone he cared about get tortured, or simply die, before dying himself. He wanted the insolent boy to hear his wife’s screams as she begged the Lord to spare her and her son’s lives. He wanted James to feel desperate, to want so badly to help but to be unable to do anything. 

Wordlessly he shot the Bone Breaking Curse at him.

The usual Bone Breaking curse would at the most break one bone, but the darker version of it that Voldemort used, was designed to break every bone in the body from least to most painful, excruciatingly stretched out. Not fast enough to be instantaneous, but not slow enough to give time for the afflicted to recover and heal themselves.

It was perfect for what the Dark Lord had on his mind.

James, who was still regaining balance after nearly avoiding the Cruciatus, was struck strong and fast with the curse. So quickly had the spell come that he hadn’t even seen it coming. The force behind the spell shot his wand out of his hold and threw it a good two meters away. He wanted so desperately to go over and get his wand back but every miniscule movement that he made increased the pain ten-fold. The effect of the curse was beyond terrible. Breathing felt like a struggle to him as he fought to retain his consciousness. There was no way that he would succumb to that feeling, knowing that Lily was still very well in danger.

But it was so difficult, too difficult for him to even move a muscle. Despite this, he started slugging over to where his wand was, to try to do whatever little he could.

Voldemort had something else in mind; he walked over to where the wand lay. Picked up the object and using sheer physical strength, he snapped the wand in half, keeping his gaze and sinister smile fixed on James Potter’s form.

If possible his pain increased as he saw his wand get snapped. He somehow felt colder, as he felt the magic that would once wash over him whenever he held his wand recede and dimmer as if the magic in the wand was dying, just like he was. He could truly do nothing now, although his magic was trying to heal him, it wasn’t enough. After battling Voldemort, his magic was now weak; it would take days and days of rest to replenish it. The added burden of having to heal James’s heavy injuries would certainly not help it to become strong enough for James to perform whatever little of wandless magic he could do.

As James saw Voldemort leave the sight, he wished he could have died. He was useless and pathetic as he lay there, defeated and too weak to fight on, to protect the two people that meant more to him than life itself. He knew that the Dark Lord was beyond pissed; he wouldn’t hesitate to kill Lily if she didn’t oblige, and Lily would on principle fight back. He wanted to scream, but no sound would escape. He just couldn’t do anything, not anymore.

All that was left for him to do was to try to ignore the pain that had somehow increased in just the last few seconds and to focus on the one image that made his worst days better, that of Lily, Harry, Sirius and Remus together, laughing and just being normal for once. He forced Peter- no, Pettigrew out of his memories as he thought back to his time at Hogwarts. As he thought, more and more memories came up to his slowly deteriorating conscious. Those of Viscenya and Harry playing together, Sirius and him trying to play matchmaker as Marlene and Lily rolled their eyes, Remus trying to get Harry and Viscenya to start reading already saying “ _It’s never too early you guys!”_. That was all that was left, memories and regrets. Tears streamed down his face and pooled on the floor beside him, as he suffered through the additional jolts of pain that added to his suffering as sob after sob racked his body.

The memories and thoughts stopped though, only as he heard a sharp scream pierce the air, a scream he realized was Lily’s.


	3. Halloween Night (pt.2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second part of Voldemort's attack on Godric's Hollow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After the second chapter, I procrastinated into oblivion, before I decided to utilise my time efficiently.   
> This chapter talks about Lily and her experience of battling Voldemort. There's some humour at the end though, cause I needed a break from the lachrymose setting of it all.   
> There is a very bad Game Of Thrones reference in this chapter somewhere in the end.   
> Please don't leave the story for that. I assure you that I have better jokes.  
> .  
> Comment and let me know what you think!   
> To all the people reading this, I hope you remain healthy and happy in these trying times :)  
> .  
> I don't own Harry Potter, also the 'Game Of Thrones' reference was just a bad joke. :p

_“The memories and thoughts stopped though, only as he heard a sharp scream pierce the air, a scream he realized was Lily’s._ ”

* * *

The door was bolted, furniture was piled against it and the enchantments were in place. Had Lily been alone, she would have apparated away but now she had Harry to consider and protect. Apparating with a newborn was strictly prohibited since their young and fragile body would not be able to endure the procedure and could prove fatal for them. All she could now do was wait. There was no point in sending for help, nobody knew where they lived, and if she sent that kind of information through a Patronus, there was no guarantee that the person she sent the message to wasn’t compromised. After what she had seen of Pettigrew’s loyalty, she didn’t want to take any risks. 

The thought of that snivelling rat clouded her vision and she saw red. While their location was the most crucial piece of information that he had passed on to the dark side, she wondered what else and who else had he compromised. But now wasn’t the time to dwell on this. Oh, she would think and act on this when the time came… **_if_** the time came.

The noise of the battle below was deafening and she was surprised that Harry hadn’t cried out from it. She was surprised that she hadn’t because she wanted to. She so desperately wanted to. None of what was happening to her was fair, she was twenty-one for Merlin’s sake! This was the time for her to enjoy life, to enjoy adulthood, to enjoy being free from school, to enjoy freedom. Whenever she thought of life after school, regardless of the war, she thought of a happy time, where she would be with James. She wanted to become an Alchemist, she wanted to explore, she wanted a chance to reconcile with Petunia, she wanted to prove to Sirius that she was better at Wizarding Chess than him, among other things. She never wanted to be stuck in a room helpless, while her husband fought with the darkest wizard of all time.

That isn’t to say that she didn’t enjoy being married or having a baby. Even though she and James were a bit weary when they found out that she was pregnant, the day that Harry was born was perhaps the happiest day of her life. She would never in a million years trade what she had with James for a chance at the normal life. Now she wanted all those things with James by her side and with Harry at her hip. But to the Lily who was still forlornly looking at the door, it all seemed too good to be true. A large part of her believed that she would die today. It believed that all that she held dear would perish, all at the hands of the psychotic bigot her husband was currently battling.

The sounds from below had now reached an alarming decibel. It was so loud that she could barely hear her thoughts. She walked to where Harry’s crib was and crouched down so she could be at eye level with Harry. Her young son was for his part fairly quiet, his eyes were shining in the light, something that highlighted the green of his irises. As she looked at him she could see so much of James in him. The hair, the face, the proportionality of his features, it was all James. The eyes though, that he had gotten from her. That’s also the part of him that James liked best. She reached out her hand and caressed her darling boy’s face, the smooth skin feeling like silk under her fingertips. It made her heartache even worse. It hurt her to think that something this pure could ever be subjected to something as evil as Voldemort.

Harry in his one year of existence had won everyone’s hearts. Sirius and Marlene loved him as if he was their son. Viscenya too loved him (or she felt whatever infant-like equivalent there was to love). Whenever those two were in the same room, they’d never leave each other’s sides, not that they could (they didn’t know how to walk yet), but it seemed that they were content in each other’s presence. Remus loved Harry for the simple reason that even on days where he’d feel down and sickly, thinking of Harry’s smile would better his mood. Harry was the remedy to his bouts of self-pity. Whenever he thought of himself as a monster, it helped him to know that pure and sweet Harry still loved him. 

Lily wanted Harry to know this, to know that everyone in his life loved and cherished him. Even though Harry wouldn’t understand a single word of what she’d say, Lily looked deep into Harry’s eyes and said with equal parts loves and conviction, “ Harry you are so loved, Harry… Mama loves you Dada loves you.” Her eyes watered slightly for the first time that night, as she looked at the young baby, completely impervious to the evils of the world. Harry, of course, didn’t know what was going on as was evident from his oblivious expression, but Lily felt better in knowing that she had conveyed what she needed to. 

Her gaze that had been locked with Harry immediately broke as she heard a loud bang, and just as quickly a scream erupted from her throat at the suddenness of it all. There stood Voldemort in all his glory, looking every bit as evil as one could. Although she put in all the best protective charms she knew, a part of her wasn’t surprised that he had broken them all. Only now she realized how quiet the house had gotten in the last few moments, deathly quiet. She didn’t hear another set of footsteps rushing up the stairs. Nobody was following him. Voldemort was here, James wasn’t. He wasn’t here. He wasn’t here.

Bloody hell, he wasn’t here.

The Dark Lord was at the door, James was in all probability dead.

Voldemort was here.

James was dead.

Cue heartbreak and despair.

Instead, _he_ was here. For Harry. To kill Harry. To take Harry away from her. To kill Harry. Her brain felt like a broken record player, repeating the same thing over and over again.

She shot a quick _stupefy_ at him.

He dodged it effortlessly.

She shot spell after spell, not quite different from the way James had. Her years of practice and diligence showed as she balanced her footwork and with graceful twirls of her hand attacked Voldemort. She looked sure and confident, very unlike the nerve-wracked version of her that currently reigned her thoughts and mind. Internally she was scrambling, for something, anything. Anything to lessen the pain, James was gone, he had to be gone, otherwise, he wouldn’t have let this monster get through to her. The one person she had thought would never leave her (he had promised after all!) was now gone. Had she been alone, she would have broken down. Regardless of Voldemort’s presence, she would have broken down. But just like before, she had Harry to think of, to protect. She had always been a warrior, since her first year at Hogwarts she had fought. She had fought against the bigots that felt that bullying her was something that they could get away with.

Voldemort was nothing but a bully, a pale, lifeless, soulless bully.

The same bully was also much more experienced than she was. With an intricately cast spell, he had simultaneously removed Lily’s wand from her person and cast a dark version of the Body Binding Curse.

This spell lasted longer and every so often made its way through to the muscles, slowly paralyzing them. It also made the person unconscious as it worked its way through them. This was to make sure that even when the spell wore off, the person who had been subjected to it wouldn’t be able to move. The Dark Lord wouldn’t have been averse to simply killing Lily or to set the Bone Breaking Curse on her just as he had done to her husband. The only thing that stopped him was the fact that his loyal servant Severus had practically begged him to try to protect Lily. While he wouldn’t have heeded the words, he decided to oblige his servant this once, because he had seen what the girl was capable of. Despite being a mudblood she had better control over her magic and more experience than most purebloods, she was also a lot less annoying and stupid than her husband (whom Voldemort didn’t feel any remorse for cursing). Voldemort was nothing if not a procurer of talent. He never relished in spilling magical blood. Besides he had no personal problem against the girl other than the fact that she tried to keep him away from the one thing he sought the most, immortality. And this she did by trying to protect her son. In the end, sentiment got in the way, as it always does.

However, that was not a problem any longer, as Lily Potter was now on the floor, as rigid and frozen as ice with her wand nowhere near her. 

The silence was deafening.

Harry, who was once crying, now sat in his crib with tear tracks over his cheeks. Even to the baby, it felt as if something had gone wrong.

Voldemort was now rejoicing. There was truly nothing between him and his destiny now.

After going through years of pain and suffering at the hands of his orphanage, he had learnt of the fact that he was a wizard, that he was special. Tom was quick to rise through the ranks of his house, despite being a half-blood. His knowledge of his ancestry only served to affirm his belief of magical superiority. All this didn’t make it easy for him to gain followers though, many Slytherins however scraggly or thick-headed they were weren’t keen on following a half-blood. Though they learned soon enough as most do. He wasn’t just feared for his vast and powerful affinity to the dark arts. Everything about him screamed power and control. Anyone who wanted a better world, a fairer world was enamoured with what Voldemort preached. He had had to face criticism and dissent at every step of his life, nothing had **_ever_** been easy for him. But he had overcome it all. He had risen and forged his path.

And after getting so close to achieving all his dreams, he wasn’t going to let a dumb one-year-old put a damper on his plans.

Now, just because he had gone easy on the previous Potters did not mean that he would with this one. the brat was sat in his crib, surprising silent for someone who had just seen his mother attacked. The boy looked up at him and Voldemort was thrown off for just a millisecond by the green hue of his eyes. The big eyes peered up at him as Voldemort raised his wand.

Power surged through his entire body, making him feel almost giddy (a feeling that he had **_never_ **felt). Yes, he felt powerful whenever he saw the light leave someone’s eyes. It somehow proved that he was stronger, better and much worthy than any of them. He felt God-like, knowing that he could take life away whenever he wished to. Now he was in a predicament that he had been in far too many times to be nervous. Killing was second nature to him. This time though, the stakes were much higher. With his wand raised, he breathed deeply through his nose as he set his eyes in determination. He channelled every bit of hate, anger and resentment he had ever felt. He thought of the times when people had scorned him and his ideas, he thought of when the world had laughed at him for thinking too far and for entertaining dreams too big.

He channelled the hurt into his magic, as it poured out of his wand. A flash of bright green bathed the small room in its colour as it travelled towards the young boy.

Just as the curse touched Harry though, it shone a brighter green before it moved with ten times the speed it had before, towards Voldemort.

And at that moment when he saw the spell change its course, Voldemort knew that he had fucked up.

You know that feeling you get when you swing your chair too far back and it loses it grounding? You know that you’ll hit the ground; you know that you’ll injure yourself. But even with that knowledge, you realize that there’s nothing you can do about it. Everything and nothing happens at the same time. You don’t flail your hands about because you know that’s not going to work. Everybody else doesn’t realize what goes inside your mind at that time. It’s something that can’t be put into words. That’s why the author won’t even try.

Now that we know what that feeling is, and that everyone is on the same page, it’s safe to say that Lord Voldemort, the Dark Lord, evil mastermind extraordinaire, breaker of chains, mother of dragons, Khaleesi of th- oh wait… that’s someone else, was feeling that exact emotion. Lord Voldemort felt as if he had tipped his chair far too back, and now there was no place else to hit but the ground.

The spell hit him and he felt whatever was left of his soul rip apart. An excruciating snarl left his mouth. What was left of him fled, where to? Nobody knows, the author has a feeling that neither does Voldemort himself at the moment. All he wanted was to escape that room.

Meanwhile, here in the demolished room of Harry Potter, the soul fragment had already chosen Harry as a haven, the boy’s magic being the most unexhausted and healthy. Subsequently, a mark etched itself on Harry’s forehead. Somewhat like a brand. It would tell people in the future of his victory. It would brand him as the Boy Who Lived.

If you’d ask Albus Dumbledore he’d say that scars were in their way useful. For him, his scar on the knee most certainly was. but for Harry Potter, the boy who’d want a normal life, this scar in the shape of a lightning bolt was nothing but trouble.


	4. Waking up in Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James wakes up at the hospital after Voldemort's attack.
> 
> Sirius and James show us why they're 'best friend goals'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As society once said, " Wazzuuupppppp?"
> 
> I know that I'm terribly late with this update, but I hope that the length of the chapter makes up for it.
> 
> I can't tell if the pace of the story fits well with you guys, let me know in the comments.  
> Anyway, it's just a matter of another one or two chapters before I skip time and start with the original plot.  
> .  
> I just feel that it's necessary to clear up information that we read about later in canon, right now, cause the situation is much more different.  
> .  
> Just be patient for another two chapters at the most and then you'll get what you came here for.  
> .  
> I hope you're all staying safe and trying to keep sane in these truly insane times. My thoughts and prayers are with you :)

* * *

_**4th November 1981** _

_**St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries,** _

* * *

James Potter had had a lot of experience with losing consciousness. It would either be a result of extreme exhaustion (which happened mostly after Full Moon nights) or because of the very obvious reason of extreme intoxication.

And from all these experiences he could say that recovering from the after-effects of passing out was something he never enjoyed. His head would pound, the limbs would ache and he would in feel like shit in general. Now, even though James Potter had passed out and faced the brunt of its repercussions more than enough times, nothing could ever have prepared him for what he felt like when he gained consciousness in a St. Mungo's private room(of course he didn’t know that then). His eyes blearily opened and the white paint from the walls was the first thing he noticed. Of course, that was the only thing _could_ notice, given that he wasn’t wearing his glasses. For him, the world would have been a messy blur of shapes and colours despite the bleariness from his injuries at that point.

His ears, fortunately, worked just fine, which was why he could make out the faint music that was playing in his room. The music was unlike anything he had ever heard. It wasn’t music from the magical world that was for sure, for he could have sworn that he had never heard of a magical musician who played the piano. He _had_ heard of several muggle blokes who did, Lily and Remus used to rave about them whenever they felt oddly reminiscent of their upbringing.

Go back a second.

Lily.

Where _was_ she?

Go back another second.

“ _Where am I?” _he thought as he as he sought to make out anything from his surroundings. He tried reaching back into his memory (which proved quite difficult considering the headache that was currently wreaking havoc on him).

His (painful) trip down memory lane brought mere glimpses to the forefront of his mind. The glimpses were mostly of bright flashes of light and screams. He probed further despite the protests from his brain and came up with more visions. It was a blurry mess. Nothing made sense. He remembered feeling overwhelmed, he remembered the feeling of panic that rose within him at one point and he remembered the feeling of being stuck in one place, the feeling of hopelessness filling him up. He remembered a figure dressed in black raising his wand shooting a beam of bright green at him. He remembered hearing a gut-wrenching scream.

And then it became clear as day.

He remembered that Voldemort had attacked him.

And he realized that Voldemort had gotten past him. He had left James lying pathetically down the stairs while he went on to battle his wife. He must’ve passed out and/or died from the pain of it all (he hadn’t gotten around to figure out his mortal status, the author thinks that his brain couldn’t have handled the pressure of it all and would have given up regardless of him being safe for now), for he remembered nothing beyond his memory of hearing Lily scream.

Fuck… Lily.

Where was she? Did she survive? Did Voldemort die? Did _she_ die?

And Harry,

Fuck… Harry.

Where was he? Did he survive?

Merlin’s pants! Did James make it out alive? The scream that he heard, it was Lily’s, yes, but what it did it mean? Did Voldy use a Cruciatus on her? Did he kill her? Did he kill Harry? Where was Sirius? Where was Dumbledore? Did help arrive on time? And if he was dead was he in heaven or hell? (It hurt too much for him to be in heaven, to be honest, but he put to a stopper to that line of thought).

He moved his lesser numb hand to try to prod at his skin to check if he was an actual person made of meat and bones or if he was an incorporeal, misty, soul-thingy that was doomed to live on Earth without an actual life. But just as he even tried, _tried_ , to lift his finger an alarm rang loud. Just a pitch shy of a crow’s caw. It was loud and annoying. And it was pissing him off. He wanted to yell out in frustration when the door to the room burst open and a figure dressed in black robes rushed in. And the alarm stopped ringing just as quickly as it had started.

Since James could make nothing out of the stranger’s appearance, he did the second-best thing.

“Satan?” he asked, more like guessed when the figure started moving closer. Not that his guess (had it been right) would have spared him from the torture that one endured in hell, but it would have been nice to know that he had a victory (even if it was in the form of a correct guess) before he went ahead and got maimed.

Now, before you wonder why he said what he said, just remember that there rarely is a reason for anything that James Potter says. At least that is what it seems to us “mere mortals” (as James likes to put it). He thinks that his intentions and plans are too other-worldly for us to grasp

The figure upon hearing the words leave James’s mouth in a hoarse whisper stopped suddenly.

“I saved your life, your wife’s life, your child’s life, rescued you from the shit hole that had become of your house, got you to the hospital and now _I’m_ Satan? Honestly, _fuck you_ Prongs!” the figure yelled incredulously.

The figure happened to be Sirius Orion Black.

“ _Padfoot?”_ James asked even though his throat protested. He needed to drink water. “Vo- _Voldemort,_ wh- what _happened?”_

Sirius sighed moved closer and grabbed something from the nightstand that was placed beside James’s bed, it was his glasses. Before placing them over his eyes, Sirius warned James, “Okay, now before I do this, beware that all the sudden light and clarity might be disorienting if you at all feel uncomfortable let me know.”

James made a move to stop and question him further but before he could do any one of that Sirius had already placed his glasses over his eyes with ease.

The view was blinding.

The sudden input of light made him flinch slightly and he blinked a couple of times to get used to proper vision. And after he did that his gaze focused on Sirius.

The man, whose hair looked perfect even after a Quidditch match now sported greasy, matted hair that had lost all its life. His face had sunken and it looked unusually pale, his robes looked dishevelled and the aura that usually surrounded Sirius was all gone. When James finally looked into his eyes though, that’s when he realized how bad it had gotten.

Since before time, Sirius’s grey eyes had been a sort of gateway to his actual emotions. Being raised by a pureblood house such as the Blacks ensured that Sirius had had a lot of training in hiding his emotions the best he could, which was why Sirius Black was harder to read than most. But his eyes, they always told the truth. Anyone who knew Sirius Black would tell you that the best way to gauge his mood would be look in his eyes because they were more expressive than all the people in his family combined. The shade and depth in his irises were enough to tell the right person what Sirius was feeling like.

So when James looked into his best friend’s eyes and saw no life in them he was beyond worried.

“Sirius te-, tell me wh...” James couldn’t finish his sentence because his throat was too far gone. He wanted to ask a lot of questions but he couldn’t seem to. Sirius realized this as he grabbed a cup from the nightstand, raised his wand poured water into it. He gently raised the cup to James’s lips and offered him the drink.

When James drank the water it felt soothing and scorching at the same time. While the cool water reduced some of the soreness, the sudden input made his throat feel as if it was on fire. He took tentative sips to get used the sensation. Sirius held the cup in his hand the entire while. He waited patiently for James to be done, and James let him know with a simple nod. Once the cup was placed back on the table James took a deep breath before he started asking the questions that had been plaguing his mind, “Where are Lily and Harry? What happened to Voldemort? Are they fine? Where am I? When did you get to us? What day is it? _What’s going on!?_ ” he ended his tirade in a manner that told Sirius that he couldn’t beat around the bush any longer.

Sirius sighed and ran a hand through his hair, messing it up worse than it already it was. He shuffled closer to James and put a light hand on his shoulder aware of the fact that the slightest movements could cause his friend more pain. He wanted to hug the life out of the idiot that was his best friend but he couldn’t, not until he was healthy, not yet.

“On Halloween night I went to visit Peter at his apartment, something had been bothering me since the last day and I needed someone who could understand. I debated on going to your place but then I thought that it would be too risky, I was pretty sure that Voldy-shorts had someone tailing me and it wouldn’t be wise to just lead them to you. I could have gone to Remus but… you know why I wouldn’t have gone there.” He mumbled the last part out, visibly ashamed of his actions and previous beliefs.

“I know what you feel like. We were idiots to think that _Remus_ was the spy; the Rat had been it all along. I know you’re mad, I am too. But right now, all that matters is Lily and Harry. Just tell me how they are, _please._ ” James explained.

Sirius held the palm of his hand out in a placating manner just as his other hand gave James’s shoulder a ‘barely-there’ squeeze.

He immediately launched back into his retelling of the night.

“Anyway, I got to Pettigrew’s place, but I found that his door was ajar, I went in to check further, nothing seemed out of order. Everything was just _fine_.” He ground out.

“I looked around the place calling out for him repeatedly, but he wouldn’t respond. I cast a spell to check if he even was there. Turns out, he wasn’t. That was enough to set me off. I rushed back to my place, asked Marlene to contact Dumbledore to let him know that Peter was missing and to ask him to meet me at Godric’s Hollow. After that, I immediately left for your house.”

“I thought Peter had gone to visit his mother? That’s what he told us.” James put in confusedly.

"Well, the bastard lied. He told us that he would be at his place. He was _supposed_ to be at home. He thought that you wouldn’t come out alive and that he could get away just like that.” Sirius ground out.

He took a breather as if willing himself to go on. James looked at him as if silently giving him the strength to continue, trying desperately not to fixate on his anger at Pettigrew.

“I arrived just outside and saw what had been left of the structure. One look was enough to tell me that _he_ had arrived. The door was blown off its hinges, there was a massive hole in the side of the living room wall, what was troubling was the missing roof. The shingles had all fallen off and there seemed to be smoke coming out from where the roof had been blown up. I rushed inside and just there, by the staircase…” he didn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he took a deep breath and willed himself not to cry. He reminded himself that James was there in front of him alive and somewhat healthy (actually not healthy at all, but he would take what he could get).

“You were there by the staircase. Your glasses had fallen off somewhere in the vicinity. Your eyes were close, your legs… they were bent at an odd angle. I thought- for a second, I- I, I thought…

Ugh, I uh- I thought that you were dead.” He choked out, finally letting a tear escape. His nose was itchy and red from keeping in the grief; it felt good to let it out. Another tear followed and soon, Sirius Black had launched into full-blown sobs. The sight made James feel as if his throat was closing up.

“Padfoot” he called out softly. Sirius didn’t respond.

“Sirius, listen to me,” he said again, in a much more commanding tone.

When Sirius finally looked up, James ignored the blotchy pallor of his friend’s usually lively face and said, “Sirius, I’m fine now, I’m right before you, talking and breathing in front of you. You didn’t lose me okay? I know you feel terrible, but I _need_ to know what happened. I _need_ to know where the others are.” He said comfortingly. He didn’t dare belittle Sirius’s grief, for he knew that he would behave that way soon enough with Lily. He knew what it felt like.

Sirius coughed a bit, wiped his nose with the back of his hand. He shook his head a little as if trying to rid himself of his morbid thoughts by shaking them off.

He sent a short smile in James’s direction and continued.

“I swooped down to reach for your hand and to check for a pulse, it wasn’t much but it was there, faint, very faint. It was enough for me to go on. Rushed up the stairs to where I knew Harry’s room was and from the roof had been blown off. The magic in the air there was so thick that I could practically taste it on my tongue. I had sensed the thick magical residue as soon as I entered your house, but it was the worst in Harry’s room.”

“My eyes immediately fell on Lily who in turn was on the floor; I briefly saw in my periphery that the room was almost falling apart, it was evident that a fight had taken place. I did the same thing with Lily, I checked for her pulse which was much stronger than yours had been. I didn’t know what spell had been cast on her, but her skin seemed to have gained a bluish tint to it. Which was confusing since going by her pulse, she was strong enough to not be dead. I looked up and around the room only now realizing that Harry was there sitting in his crib. Very much alive and healthy, except for a suspicious-looking mark on his forehead. Almost in the shape of a lightning bolt.”

“I looked around further, the room was crumbling, and most of the things lying around the room had been reduced to ash. The floor was covered in soot and I faintly realized that it was a matter of time before the muggles started arriving. I cast the muggle repelling charm before I hurriedly went through the house to check for a sign of the _bastard,_ but I came up short. I cast the spell to check and see if there was anyone besides us present there, but to no avail.”

“It was too early to know if he had died, it seemed highly unlikely but at the same time, it was very probable. For I know for a fact that the arsehole wouldn’t have left the place with you guys _and_ Harry alive. He had made it his goal to get to Harry, but Harry was right in front of my eyes and ‘Voldy-shorts’ wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I had no idea what had happened but I knew that it wasn’t time to focus on that yet. Getting you guys to the hospital was a bigger priority, the biggest.”

“Just then, Dumbledore arrived on the scene with Remus and Marlene in tow.”

“Both of them were absolute wrecks after seeing what had become of you guys. Mar took hold of Harry, and Remus, Dumbledore and I somehow got you two to the hospital.” He finished his story with one final sigh looking up at James to see his reaction.

James was still reeling from the part about Voldemort being missing. He had no idea what had happened after Voldemort reached Lily and he had automatically assumed the worst, but hearing that he wasn’t anywhere to be found and instead, his wife and child were safe and relatively healthy was just as much of a relief as it was confusing.

He didn’t know what to make of the information that had been thrown at him, but he knew somewhere that there was more to the story than what Sirius had told him. He had probably censored some stuff or had given him a much simpler version to him, taking pity on his already fragile mind. Something for which he was grateful, he knew for a fact that he wouldn’t have been able to handle the information.

So he settled for the simpler route and asked, “Lily’s alive then? And Harry is too?” his voice almost dripping with relief.

“Yeah they are” Sirius agreed with a laugh, just as relieved as he was.

“Harry was checked but nothing out of the ordinary came up, just a strong magical residue, which we’re still looking into. Lily was struck with a dark version of the Body Bind curse, it made it difficult for the healers to treat her, but they eventually got around to it. She woke up earlier than you and has been asking questions non-stop, she’s much better than she was before and thankfully she’s recovered quite fast, she’s still in the hospital though.”

“If Lily’s still in the hospital, who is taking care of Harry?” asked James, already going into his overprotective father mode.

“He’s at my place; Marl and Remus have been taking care of the two in shifts while I was here. She told me once when she visited that he and Viscenya were having the time of their lives together back home, Harry truly is fine. They visited you lot more than a couple of times, worried out of their wits. But once the Healers said that you two were out of danger they stopped worrying so much. They’re both at home right now, just you wait, as soon as I let them know that you woke up, you’ll be in for it.”

“Mum and Dad? Did they visit? Are they here? Are they fine?” James asked, only now thinking about his parents. It had been a long time since he had spoken to them, and after whatever he had just heard, he needed his mother’s hug.

Sirius paled even further and his features shifted to give off a neutral expression. He had heard of what had happened to the Potters and the only reason he even visited Pettigrew that night was to find someone who could understand even a sliver of his grief. Fleamont and Euphemia had done more for him than anyone in his blood family had. They were just as much as his parents as they were James’s. But as he looked at James’s already worn face, he couldn’t bear to add to it. He’d tell him soon; after all, he deserved to know more than anyone, but not now, not yet.

Sirius was about to cover up with some excuse but he was saved by the sound of the footsteps coming towards the room. Sirius schooled his features, turned to James and said, “I’ll tell you later. I promise. For now a fair warning, people think of your family as heroes of Wizarding kind, so don’t seem too shocked yeah?”

“Wha- _Why_?” James asked incredulously.

“Do you need to ask me that question? Buddy you and your family seemingly destroyed Voldemort. You’re a hot-shot now. Enjoy!” he supplied and shot a teasing wink at him.

The door to his room opened; revealing a Healer dressed in the traditional robes who entered carrying in her hand several small vials of potions that were most likely his medicines. She had entered the room with an excited smile on her face, which increased ten-fold as her gaze met James’s. She was young which meant that she was an intern at best.

“Ah, Mr Potter, awake at last! We’ve been waiting for this for a long while now. That’s why we had the alarm system set up, did you notice!? It was my idea, the alarm. Your friend had taken it upon himself to check in on you every hour to see if you were awake, he even got in a fight with one of the Healers once! Anyway, I know you aren’t feeling up to it right now, considering you _just_ woke up but I would love it if you could give me your autograph, I’ve already gotten Mrs Potter’s! You see, all my friends were positively jealous that I got to work on the ‘celebrity case’ rather than them, now, to placate them I kind of have to do this. Not that _I_ don’t want your autograph, I do, I do, but I felt that they’d hate me less if I got one for them as well.” She said all of this in one breath, something that scared James to no end.

“I don’t know if you remember me but I was in Hogwarts while you were there too! I was four years beneath you! Oh, I had always admired your courage Mr Potter, but always from afar. But now, I get to work towards your health and nothing could make me happier! To think that I’m healing the man who battled _You-know-who!_ You saw him! In the flesh! And you survived! I mean, you’re a hero sir!” she finished admiringly.

“And your son Harry is an absolute _darling._ I met him briefly when he came with Mrs Black. He’s just too cute! Would it be okay if my father took a picture of him to put on Goblets, Dress shirts and such? You see, he owns an accessory shop in Diagon Alley and he’s thinking of starting a ‘Boy-who-lived’ clothing line. I could arrange a meeting with him if you- “ she stopped talking abruptly just as the door opened yet again, this time revealing an older woman, probably in her thirties who was probably the Healer handling his case.

She walked in with confidence and looked pointedly at the intern. Her one look had the young girl lowering her gaze and setting up the vials that she had carried with her on the nightstand. “I believe that Mr Potter needs rest and medicine more than he needs the incessant chatter at the moment, Healer Anderson.” She said in a way that was oddly reminiscent of the way McGonagall used to reprimand the children who would be foolish enough to talk in her class.

“My apologies Mr Potter, I’ll leave now...” she almost tripped as she rushed out of the room, scared beyond words by the way her superior had spoken.

“I do apologise for her behaviour Mr Potter, it was very unprofessional, and she is a nice, hard-working girl she just gets easily distracted.” The lady explained.

“Oh it was not that big of a problem, it was refreshing. Please don’t be too hard on her; it really wasn’t that much of a bother.” James said quickly.

To be honest he felt a bit scared at how quickly the girl spoke but it wasn’t her curiosity or her never-ending excitement that had him reeling. It was the stuff that she had said. _‘Boy-Who-Lived’_? , ‘ _celebrity case’_? What in Merlin’s name was wrong with these people? He had just survived the most terrible and traumatizing night of his life, and here they were making a brand out of his misery? His one-year-old son was being asked for photographs. For fuck’s sake, a _clothing line_? Had everyone lost it?

“… and this potion right here is for the pain, bear in mind that a small dosage would be more than enough, so don’t overdose on it.” James heard as he was brought back into reality when Sirius squeezed his hand just a little to get his attention on the Healer who was explaining to him the medicines he would have to take.

“This vial here is for your health replenishment. You were unconscious for almost three days Mr Potter your health and magic had been completely exhausted when you were brought here. So be sure to take this particular potion on time and regularly.”

“When you were brought here, most of your major bones had been severely broken and the density of the rest was deteriorating quickly. It took us some time to know what had happened, for we had never seen a case such as that. Eventually, we had to call in the DMLE for reference on the type of curse that was used on you, turns out it was a dark version of the Bone- Breaking Curse. It was masterfully cast and because of that, we had a lot of trouble reining it in. We got the job done though, but you’ll see that the after-effects would last for another week now. Thankfully you are now awake, so the healing process can move at a faster pace.”

“Also, Mr Potter, your wife has been asking a lot for you, we would have allowed her to visit but she wasn’t in the best of health. She is much better now and we expect her to recover enough tomorrow for her to be able to leave her room and to visit you.”

At that James smiled, the smile was so pure and happy that the healer could feel it rubbing off on her.

With a small smile, she spoke again, “Even though you’ll have to wait for tomorrow to meet your wife, you _can_ meet your son as and when you wish, I am aware that he is currently being looked after by a friend of yours if you wish I can have a message sent out to her and she’ll bring him in later today?”

“Yes, absolutely yes! Please, I’d like nothing more!” he agreed ecstatically.

The Healer’s smile slipped for a second as she inched closer towards James, in a slightly lower voice she spoke, “Mr Potter speaking of young Harry, I was the one who diagnosed your son. And… he was surprisingly very healthy. There _was_ one problem though… there was a very strong dark magical residue on him, one that is left behind after being dealt with dark magic. While it’s understood where the magic came from, it's bewildering to notice that nothing seems wrong with the boy apart from just a scar on his forehead. That’s all there is to the attack on him.”

“We expected side effects of the dark magic to show on the child, but nothing happened. He’s as healthy as a horse! Albus Dumbledore came in and spoke to me about it later. He has some theories as to what happened. I’d love to give you the concrete answers that I’m sure you’re craving now, but that’s all we have, for now, theories. Mr Dumbledore and I would like to discuss the matter with at length once you and your wife fully recover. Rest assured nobody apart from Dumbledore, your friend and I know about this. You can choose to let this information out to the others.”

James had not expected that. He had heard what little Sirius had said about the dark magical residue on Harry, but his mind had not focused on it for too long, wanting to pay attention to the good. But now that the healer had mentioned it and brought it to the forefront of his mind, he couldn’t help but let worry seize him.

“I suppose you can’t tell me anything else about it, something else that might have come up in the scans?” James probed, wanting to know whatever he could about his son’s condition.

“Mr Potter you have to trust me when I say that whenever _anything_ comes up, you and your wife would be the first ones to know. For now, we have nothing more than theories, which we’ll discuss properly once both you and your wife are healthy. I would suggest that you save the stress for later, right now you’ve just woken up and I believe that your body won’t be able to handle the severity of it all.” she told him with honesty lacing her words, almost beseeching him to understand her.

“Of course, healer…?” James trailed off, feeling embarrassed that he hadn’t thought of asking for her name before.

“Reed, Catherine Reed” she supplied and without waiting for another reply left the room after sending a short smile their way.

Sirius was looking over the progress chart that the Healer Reed had left behind when James suddenly spoke up “What do you think is wrong with Harry?”

Sirius had been quiet while the Healer had explained Harry’s condition to them, and James suspected that it was because Dumbledore and he might’ve already gone over the situation. Thinking of Dumbledore also made him question why Dumbledore hadn’t thought of taking action against Sirius, for all he knew it was Sirius who had betrayed them. He didn’t raise his doubts about that now, choosing to focus on Harry but he did put it on his rapidly growing list of questions that he would ask once he got out.

“What do I think is wrong with Harry? Nothing, he’s perfect. Although I think sometimes he refuses to say my name out of some spite. He’s got cheek that one, I’ll tell you.” Sirius said with the utmost sincerity.

“I’m not talking about that, you _dolt!_ Ugh, I meant what do you think is up with Harry, the scar and the magical residue? _Of course,_ I know that he’s perfect otherwise!” James snapped with whatever strength he could.

“Oh that, I honestly have no idea mate, I mean Marlene has been looking into books left and right to search for it and she couldn’t come up with a legitimate answer. Even Dumbledore with all his experience can’t put a pin on it. There’s nothing definite that we can say now. As the Healer said, we can’t do anything but theorize at this stage.”

“I bet its nothing too big though, my theory is that it all happened because Volde-fart, disappeared/died/got blown into smithereens and that there was so much dark magic in him, that it somehow clung to Harry who was probably the only truly pure entity there.” He said.

“I’m pretty sure that it’ll go away easily enough, I’ve seen stuff like this happen sometimes. Whenever any form of strong magic is performed anywhere, it leaves a residue. I just imagine that since Volde-butt was a pretty fucking strong wizard, it left more of an impact than normal.”

Sirius seemed pretty content with his theory but seeing the uncertainty as clear as day on James’s face made him sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose and said, “ Look, mate, there’s nothing you can do but worry about it while you’re on this bed and under the hospital’s care. You’ve just woken up after the most traumatizing night of your life. You’re alive, you’re healthy and the people that you love are safe right now. Don’t let go of this blessing by tarnishing it by focusing too much on the negative. Be a good boy and sit tight, at least while you’re here. You’ll see Lilyflower tomorrow and Harry sometime later today and I don’t want you to be a spoilsport. You’re reconnecting with them, cherish it.”

“I suppose you’re right.” James acquiesced

“Oh, I completely forgot!” Sirius said as he shoved his hand down his robe pocket and fished a picture out.

It was crinkled on the side, which was understandable since Sirius wasn’t much of a neat freak.

The picture revealed Harry and Viscenya sitting side-by-side as they babbled to each other. They both wore smiles on their faces as they waved their hands about and did whatever it was that babies did.

As James looked on fondly at the photograph in his hands, Sirius cleared his throat and diverted his attention back to him.

“Prongs, I know that things seem bleak right now. I know that you feel out of tune. But trust me. It’ll get better, we’ll figure out what’s up with Harry, you guys **_will_** be happy together. Remember that Marlene and I are there for Lily and you just as Viscy is for Harry. Remus too, despite our shit judgment of him in the time of need, stands by us. James, we started this together, you, Remus and me. And we’ll be there till the end, I swear.” He said his voice heavy with strong determination.

And as James looked at the picture again, and felt happiness creep back into his system, he believed Sirius, even if all of what he said seemed improbable in the long run. James couldn’t help but believe in him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, I'll never be able to tell if the story's any good without your input, so go on down and comment on what you thought about the chapter and the story in general as of yet.   
> .  
> I got two comments on the last chapter and that made me squeal so loud that my mum thought I was talking to my (non-existent) boyfriend.   
> Evidently, your comments make me happy. And I think we all deserve a little happiness every now and then ;)  
> .  
> All your constructive criticism of my work is welcome!.  
> Thank you for reading and stay safe loves.


	5. Now they know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James and Lily are released from the hospital and crucial information is revealed to them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had initially planned to post every ten days but then, there's so much going on this chapter that it warranted research, loads of editing and re-writing. 
> 
> The chapter talks about what happened to Pettigrew and elements that we learn about later in canon are discussed.  
> this chapter is longer than most I hope it's not much trouble :)
> 
> Remus and Marlene get their appearances and we get to see what kind of rapport they share with the others. 
> 
> More importantly,  
> After this chapter, the story will shift on to Harry and Viscenya's relationship. I'm sorry if I made you wait so long for that but don't worry, it's gonna be worth it.  
> .  
> Thank you so much for the Kudos, bookmarks and subscriptions, they make my day!  
> Enjoy :)

_**8th November 1981** _

_**St. Mungos** _

* * *

“I hope you two are not sucking face with each other, I have Remus with me, and we have to protect his innocence!” Sirius bellowed from the other side of the hospital room door.

“Ah yes, that is exactly what we were doing while getting diagnosed by three very _professional_ healers” Lily deadpanned as the door swung open and revealed Sirius striding into the room with Viscenya in his arms; right by him was a disgruntled looking Remus who in turn held Harry.

Just as the Potters saw Harry, a wide smile split their faces and Lily held out her hand in his direction, a wordless plea for Remus to give Harry to her which he did.

“We never know with you two; I still haven’t forgotten what happened yesterday. Merlin, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to burn that image out of my mind.” Sirius groaned as he shifted Viscenya in his arms to alleviate the pressure from just one portion of his hand.

“We were _cuddling_ , and _maybe_ a few kisses were shared, which is to be expected and completely normal for a couple who almost got killed and are celebrating life!” James said indignantly.

“Maybe you should celebrate life someplace other than a Hospital mate,” Remus muttered lowly under his breath. But Sirius heard him and that gave him reason enough to give his input.

“Oh no!” Sirius said with a laugh, “A lot was going on there than just ‘ _a few kisses’_. It was like a full-on-“ Sirius stopped abruptly as he felt an elbow dig sharply into his back.

When he looked sharply to his left he was met with Remus’s burning gaze which wordlessly told him to shut up. He nodded stiffly towards the healers that were trying to ignore the conversation the best they could.

They all looked a bit bashful for they still weren’t used to the type of conversation that flowed with the group of best friends. Healers, Stark, Reed and Thomas had first been extremely uncomfortable with the group but slowly had gotten used to the rapport that the friends shared. They were just grateful that Marlene McKinnon wasn’t here to complete the group, because then things would truly get out of hand.

“Where’s Marls?” asked James as looked around the room only now noticing that she wasn’t there.

“She’s with Moody and Dumbledore, getting things for your shift,” Sirius answered. James and Lily were set to leave the hospital that day. After days of thorough diagnostics and treatment, all the Healers and Dumbledore decided that it was time for the Potters to be briefed about what all had gotten down that day and the days that followed the attack.

It was terrible for Lily and James who had been kept away from whatever was happening, they weren’t even allowed to read the newspaper until their briefing for everyone thought that it would be better if they got most information through their friends rather than an ill-written piece of paper. Of course, they couldn’t exactly go about telling them all about Voldemort’s disappearance in a St. Mungo’s hospital ward. No matter how many privacy charms that were set up, everyone was too wary of their surroundings to reveal sensitive information such as that to gossip-hungry nurses and healers that were sure to lurk around.

That’s why it was decided to only let the information out to the Potters once they moved back to their new home. Their house in Godric’s hollow had been repaired and was as good as new, but when asked to shift in there, both Lily and James refused, there were just too many unfortunate reminders of an equally unfortunate night in the house’s walls.

They had just as immediately shut down the idea of house hunting. They didn’t want to roam around looking for a place to live in with the media hounding their backs.

This left the ancient Potter Manor as the only viable option. Of course to tell them that meant to also tell them of James’s parents’ death. The task wasn’t easy but it was Sirius who took it upon himself. He remembered how he craved James’s company after he heard of the news and knew that he had to be there for his best mate when he’d hear about it.

The news was a tough blow to James and Lily who had just started to gain some semblance of happiness with their friends and dear ones. And it was made ten times worse when they found out that it was Voldemort who had done the deed. It felt as if he was mocking them from his grave (or wherever the hell he had gone to). But like the other times that they had faced loss, this time as well they just gained a deeper respect for what they still had in return. While the sadness and grief were overwhelming, the pain was alleviated by the constant reminder of life and happiness that emanated from their son and the strong conviction that Remus, Sirius and Marlene exuded.

As if summoned from the simple mention, the door swung open yet again, to reveal Marlene carrying a cup of steaming hot tea in her hands.

She looked up at the couple and said, “Oh thank Merlin you two are decent, I don’t think I could have stomached my tea if I saw you guys swapping spit.” She said with fake disgust, which seemed slightly (just slightly) genuine.

The reactions to Marlene’s simple sentence were varied, to say the least.

“Nice to see you as well Marls,” Lily said fondly, used to her friend’s sense of humour

“Merlin, I love you” Sirius breathed in awe of his wife’s humour.

“Why does everyone think that we’re going at each other like rabbits all the time?” James muttered, clearly not getting the essence of Marlene’s humour.

And with the luck that James had, the only thing that Marlene heard was a part of what he had said.

“What?” she asked sharply as if daring him to go on and speak up.

“What?” asked James back not feeling ready for a confrontation.

“Nothing,” said Marlene with a nonchalance, that seemed _too_ blasé to be genuine.

“Okay then,” James said tonelessly, which somehow made it evident that he wasn’t going to stand up to her any time soon.

“ _Okay_ then,” Marlene said in victory.

(Victory over what you ask? Nobody knows. They just have a thing for wanting to assert their dominance; this epic war has raged on since their fifth year and didn’t seem to be ending soon.)

Everybody looked up as the door opened again.

Albus Dumbledore stood at the entrance with Kingsley Shacklebolt by his side. And Lily stopped swaying Harry for a second as she said, “ _Finally”_

Dumbledore heard this and the twinkle in his eye became more pronounced as he moved further into the room with a swish of his robes.

“Yes Lily, finally.” He smiled at Lily as he said this letting her know that it was just a matter of mere minutes before she would be able to leave the hospital( if the Healers all agreed that she and James were healthy enough to) and to get the answers that she was so desperately waiting for.

At Dumbledore’s words, James too smiled at the thought of finally leaving the Hospital and with it leaving the constant attention he got from all the medical staff.

The healers that were once waving their wands about running diagnostics spells, stopped as a blue light emanated from the two Potters. This caught everyone’s attention in the room.

“What does that mean?” asked a perplexed Sirius as the light died down.

Healer Reed opened her mouth to answer but Remus beat her to it, “It means that their magical cores have now replenished. The lighter the shade of the blue colour, the weaker the core is.”

Healer Reed instead of being offended at his interruption just swivelled her head to face him with an impressed look in her eyes. She knew that Remus meant no disrespect. After spending days treating his friends, she had spent a lot of time discussing their condition with him, and through those discussions, she found out that Remus Lupin was a very learned man. Whenever the rest of them would convene to discuss the repercussions of the dark magical residue on Harry, Remus’s theories and facts seemed most viable, so much so that even Dumbledore found merit in them.

Hence, it was evident that Remus Lupin was smart, but she never would have guessed that he would have known about diagnostic spells especially since never once in their talks did he mention wanting to pursue medicine.

“I’m surprised you knew that Mr Lupin.” She remarked.

“Remus, please.” He corrected her before explaining bashfully just how he knew that piece of information.

“Well, I used to spend a lot of time in the presence of Healers; you wouldn’t believe how much the spell had been used on me.”

Healer Reed gave him a quizzical look as if trying to decipher what could warrant that kind of childhood. She had her theories of course, but she didn’t think it was right to jump to conclusions.

“You’re right. The spell tells us how much of your core is healed. And the result here says it all. This was the last thing we needed to check. In essence, you guys are ready to leave the Hospital. We’ll need to sign the paperwork, go over confidentiality agreements and all the jazz. Again, this doesn’t mean that you’re free to go Apparating and travelling by Floo, or any other means of magical travel. Your bodies are still weak, especially you Mr Potter. While there has been significant growth, we can’t possibly let your health deteriorate further and magical travel does that.”

“How else are we supposed to travel then?” asked Lily.

* * *

Cars.

They had to travel by cars. To be fair they were magically enhanced cars with strong protective enchantments and charms to extend its capacity. Sirius had proposed the idea seeking inspiration from the love of his life, his motorbike. Kingsley Shacklebolt seemed most impressed as he marvelled over the ingenuity of the idea of merging magic with muggle technology. Throughout the long and surprisingly silent car ride, everyone could hear him mutter under his breath his plans of putting this idea forth to the Ministry.

Occasionally the silence would break as Lily asked Marlene and Dumbledore about the Manor, its enchantments and features. Although James didn’t say much, he listened intently as Marlene explained what all they had added to the house’s already strong wards.

Before any of this happened, he had thought that visiting his childhood home would be a sort of home-coming. His mother would be out on the portico, waiting to receive him. His father would be inside somewhere lounging in that beloved armchair of his. He’d imagined an older Harry running into his grandmother’s arms as she spoiled him rotten…

James closed his eyes as he felt his throat close up as his mind flashed with memories and emotions. He searched for Sirius in the car when his gaze landed upon him sitting a few seats away. And in Sirius’s eyes shone a similar kind of pain that was now evident in James’s teary gaze.

Lily hadn’t seen James getting teary-eyed but she knew that going back to his childhood home without his parents in it had to be traumatic. She wordlessly slipped her hand in his and intertwined her fingers with his. She didn’t give any other indication of comforting him for she knew that while James wanted physical contact, he would not want to be called out on getting emotional. Not when everyone in the car could hear and would undoubtedly try to awkwardly try to comfort him.

Everyone else knew that they were reaching their destination once the car slowed down significantly but James knew it when his body thrummed with the feel of the familiar magic of the house as the car neared the portico. It was as if the Manor’s magic recognized James as well. Almost as if the house was celebrating his return.

Huh, maybe it _was_ a homecoming.

They all stepped out of the car. James and Sirius were the last to do as both their eyes roved over every detail of the architecture over and over again. And with every sweep of their eyes memories of simpler times washed over them. They struggled to raise their feet forward and to step in through the doors as if the mere action was painful for them. While the two friends felt cold inhibition stopping them from moving forward, the Manor’s magic almost seemed to have come alive, so much so that even those who were not familiar with it could feel it as it permeated the air.

Lily realized how bad it must have been for James then, for she (with great skill) balanced Harry in one arm and held James’s hand with the other. Just her touch like all the times before gave him more strength than he could have imagined having in this situation.

With renewed conviction, he took a step forward, and another and another until he had reached the doors, and with lesser hesitation than what everyone had expected of him, he pushed them open. And with this seemingly simple action, the manor’s magic now recognized him as the new Lord Potter.

* * *

“And you believed his innocence? Just like that? I mean, it’s a good thing you did but… for all you knew he was the secret keeper, the one who betrayed us. ” Lily asked as she edged forward in her seat.

She was sitting right beside James who had inched closer and closer to her as Dumbledore gave them the detailed story of everything that happened the day before and after the attack. His briefing started with the abduction of his parents and right now, they were at the part where Sirius had sent Marlene to get Dumbledore and Remus.

James wanted to forgo it all and to just find out what had happened to idiot Pettigrew.

“Lily I think that even you would believe someone if they gave you information under Veritaserum,” Dumbledore said kindly.

Lily turned to Marlene and asked, “And you just _happened_ to have the potion on you?”

“Do I seem like a person who carries vials of potion around for no good reason? Of course, I took the serum with me deliberately. It was natural for everyone to assume that Sirius would be the secret keeper. When he told me to go get help, I knew immediately that none of them would believe me if I had no proof. Besides I had the potion concocted precisely for moments like those.” Marlene explained as she snuggled further into Sirius’s side.

“And as I have told you before, that was commendable thinking Marlene,” Dumbledore said with a smile.

He continued, “I would have gone after Peter myself but there were more pertaining matters, your lives. I sent Kingsley and Smith after Pettigrew.”

At the mention of his name, Kingsley sat up straighter and very slightly puffed out his chest. He saw this as his cue to pick up the story to give his point of view, perhaps the most crucial one.

“Smith and I reached the location where we were told to look out for him. We hadn’t expected him to be there at all, if he did plan to leave then he wouldn’t have come back. Turns out he hadn’t expected us to be there as well, because he seemed quite shocked at our presence. He thought that we didn’t know about him being a double agent and he tried to play it off and greeted us.”

“We didn’t waste time. We were certain that we would win against him; the odds were in our favour. From what we had heard of his skill and from what he had seen of his competence it was natural for us to assume that he’d surrender if we were harsh enough with our attacks.”

He took a deep breath before launching into the part that was the reason everyone was here.

“Well, we grossly underestimated him. Not only did he deflect our attack, but he also got away. We’re not sure why he simply didn’t apparate away, but he made us chase after him as ran through the streets. We sent spell after spell at him. I’m pretty sure some even got to him. What’s confusing is how he didn’t attack us at all. His goal was to deflect the hexes the best he could. After about ten minutes into the chase, he led us to a very Muggle looking street. The houses were in perfect order, not to mention there were several cars just lined up along them. It didn’t stop us though; we could see him tiring out.

It was on the muggle street that our battle truly took form. This time he fought back. His spells were surprisingly well cast and it looked like he knew what he was doing. In the commotion, we didn’t realize that a lot of Muggles had come out of their houses to check what was happening in the street. We heard cries coming from the people; somebody yelled something about calling the Police. We would have done something to calm them down but Pettigrew upon hearing the Muggles became ruthless in his attacks. The shy and demure Peter of the Order was long gone and instead of him stood someone who used dark spells and curses as if they were nothing.”

His eyes glazed a bit as he shook his head, clearing his throat once again, as he recalled that night for what was probably the tenth time. He swept his gaze across the room and he could see hurt and betrayal shine through everyone’s eyes, most of all in the trio of James, Sirius and Remus. Remus’s eyes were moist and it seemed that the tears would spill over the edge given the right push. Sirius had clenched his hand in anger so tightly that his knuckles paled. James simply looked ahead, his face betraying no emotion, his gaze was unfocused and the look seemed so unnatural on the young man’s face that it was somehow worse than any amount of tears.

“The muggles were rightfully confused and angry about what was happening. They yelled for us to stop, threatened to call the police but it all fell on deaf ears. Through the battle, we tried to get our message across to him. We asked him to surrender yet he kept going on.

Most of the muggles had settled to standing on the fringe of the vicinity, careful not to get caught in the cross-fire. But it seemed that a group of them decided to take it upon themselves to stop us.”

By the end of his sentence, his voice was barely a whisper.

Lily let out a gasp and covered her mouth with a trembling hand. Even though it was the first time that she had heard the true story, it didn’t take a genius to figure out where it was about to go.

“As soon as he saw the muggles starting to converge on us, his movements became surer just as his spells became more lethal. He didn’t go all out though; it seemed as if he was waiting for something.

The muggles picked up their pace, there were around ten to twelve of them. Smith and I didn’t realize how close they were to us until…” his voice broke off.

“… Pettigrew had sent a massive explosion curse at us, we deflected it. We didn’t realize that the Muggles were close, that they were close enough to face its brunt. The dome-like shield that we had erected stretched enough to cover just the two of us.”

Lily sniffled and her nose had adopted a reddish hue at its end, she was close to crying. 

“The spell was so vicious that it felt as if the entire street was crumbling from underneath us. There was no question of the muggles surviving the spell. It was simply too strong.”

“We scrambled to at our feet to _try_ to help them, and in that moment of kindness, Pettigrew saw his chance to escape. A loud cackling laugh from where he was standing brought our attention back to him just for a swift second before he disappeared. There were too much going on, not to mention that our mental state was not in its prime at the moment, so we can’t tell how he disappeared.”

Remus groaned as he stuck both his hands in his hair. Marlene seemed as if she was focusing on controlling her breathing, she had already heard the story several times, so the sadness had left her long ago and all that was left now was sheer anger.

The same couldn’t be said for James and Lily though. They were sad, yes, betrayed? Yes. But what shone in their eyes was guilt. Guilt for having chosen the worst possible person for keeping their secret, guilt for sentencing twelve innocent muggles to their untimely death. And Sirius knew that that was exactly what they were thinking about. How could he not, when he had cried himself to sleep almost every night since the attack over the guilt that wracked his body.

Now was not the time to focus on that. James and lily _needed_ to hear the truth. And so he picked up the rest of the story. 

“Kingsley and Smith sent word of it to Dumbledore, by that time we had gotten you both to St. Mungos. Dumbledore called for a meeting with the Minister. She ( **Millicent Bagnold** ) had come prepared with Barty Crouch on her heels. A countrywide manhunt was immediately launched to search for him, a smart move. Meanwhile, the DMAC ( **Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes** ) were in a frenzy as they went down to the street. It was terrible for them. After the explosion all the muggles were running around, many were crying. By the time they had reached, some of the police were also there.” Sirius said as he shook his head at the unfortunate situation.

“They had to gather everyone around. They called in the entire Obliviator Squad. The MWEC (Muggle **Worthy Excuse Committee** ) came up with the idea to tell the muggles that it was an explosion of the gas main on the street. People had to be oblivated, those who had died were sent to St. Mungo’s, to change some of the wounds and burns to look more Muggle worthy. Some of the Obliviators were sent to Godric’s Hollow as well, your house was preserved the best they could for that time and it was charmed just so that the Muggles would keep out, something similar to how they keep them out of Hogwarts.

With all of this commotion going around, word travelled equally as fast. St. Mungo’s was swarmed by reporters and officials trying to get to see what had happened. We _had_ to tell them something. Even if we weren’t sure if Voldemort had died, they needed to hear the truth. So we waited for the basic cures and results to come back. That didn’t take much time, within the first two hours and with the help of the DMLE, it was clear that you and Lily had been hurt by dark type magic. They checked Harry too, and as you both know heavy amounts of dark magic residue was found on him.”

“The residue _had_ to be a product of an equally dark curse, Dumbledore and Healer Reed used some fancy spell to find out which. He was… He was hit with the Killing Curse.” Sirius said brokenly.

The dramatic gasps that James and Lily let out would have been comical in any other situation but right now, they just went to show their absolute shock.

‘ _Why wasn’t I told of this?’_ they both thought as Lily’s arms tightened significantly around Harry.

They couldn’t come up with anything but James’s shaking figure was a testament to the fact that he was livid.

“He was hit with the Killing Curse and he survived, we didn’t know why we _don’t_ know why. It was a miracle that he survived with just the scar on his forehead!”

“By the time we figured this out, it had been around five hours after the attack. The press was hungry for information. They **_had_** to be told something now. The masses wanted to know if Voldemort truly was gone. Those of the Wizarding community in Godric’s Hollow were getting anxious, thinking that they could be attacked. So we let out the basic stuff. We told them a briefly what had happened, that you both were injured and that Harry was struck with the killing curse but he survived. We thought there’d be more questions, but as soon as they heard of Harry’s news, they went crazy.

And I don’t think I need to tell you how the public has been reacting to that.” he mumbled the last part. Since the press release, everybody in the Wizarding world was practically worshipping Harry. And anyone and everyone that was related to the ordeal was under the public eye.

The Daily Prophet was having a field day with the new content that they had been given. Minister for Magic Millicent Bagnold went on to say “I assert our inalienable right to party!”, thereby telling everyone that it was okay to slack off and enjoy this time. That Voldemort was truly gone.

“But what could the scar mean? Killing Curses **_never_** leave behind scars!” Lily said frantically, fighting back tears.

“The Killing Curse usually never leaves people alive as well,” Sirius muttered drily.

Lily glared at him with all she had.

She opened her mouth to tell him off when Dumbledore jumped in to diffuse the situation and to also reveal what was possibly the most crucial piece of information. But before he could do that, he needed privacy. No matter how much he trusted Kingsley and how he thought that he’d make a great Auror, he couldn’t possibly reveal this kind of information out to him.

“Mr Kingsley! I believe I must apologise, I’m sorry to have kept you from your work and meeting at the Ministry and I’m afraid that the Auror Department would take kindly to me borrowing you for such a long time. Your help today is greatly appreciated. I’m sure both Lily and James will need time to settle in, why don’t you go along now and I’ll catch up one last time today in the Ministry?” Dumbledore suggested kindly, his tone and words not betraying his ulterior motives.

Kingsley nodded deeply as he stood up and shook hands with him. He said his goodbyes to the other occupants of the room as Remus went out to see him off. Around a minute later he came back into the room where they all sitting for he knew that there was more to Dumbledore’s quick dismissal of Kingsley than just a simple work obligation.

As he sat back down, Dumbledore finally broke the silence by sighing as he, in turn, stood up. Everybody’s eyes followed him. He assumed his position in the centre of the circle that everybody had formed.

“There’s something that I haven’t told any of you. I waited so long to tell you to ensure that there was no chance of someone overhearing the conversation. Whatever you hear right now has to be kept within this room and only to be told to someone you trust explicitly”

He gave a pointed look to James and Lily who looked down in embarrassment as Dumbledore subtly called them out for their unfortunate decision regarding Peter. 

“I believe that young Harry surviving the Killing Curse that night has something to do with Euphemia Potter’s death the day before,” Dumbledore said gravely, taking in the expressions of shock, disbelief and confusion on the faces of the people in the room with him.

“Oh fuck me” was all that Lily said.

* * *

The hours after the mind-boggling, gut-wrenching and soul-crushing revelations of the briefing with Dumbledore found James Potter smoking a cigarette on one of the many balconies of the Manor. The meeting had left everyone shaken, most of all Lily and James. James had burst into tears the moment Dumbledore told them that there was a major possibility that a fragment of Voldemort’s soul was living inside of Harry.

The others had had varied reactions as well.

Sirius had simply taken Viscenya out of his arms as he laid her down on the space beside him. He then proceeded to cast a noise-cancelling charm, to make sure that none of the children woke up from the shit show that was about to go down. He had started with a vase and ended with five others. They lay there on the ground broken for everyone to see but no one even tried to repair them. They could have been priceless for all they knew, but they felt quite similar to the broken fragments to do anything.

Marlene held Lily as she silently cried who in turn held Harry as tightly as she could without harming him in any way.

Remus held James who was much worse at keeping quite. And his piercing cries of it “Not being fair” still rang in Remus’s ears as he finally found his best mate on the balcony. Remus had been to the Manor often enough to know his way through it.

The others were in the dining room, eating food that had prepared by the two House Elves that the Potter’s had Flippy and Reya. They were all more than shaken up about the news, occasionally Lily would sniffle but she was still better than James who had simply taken off to god knows where after Dumbledore left. He had no interest in whatever else was going on. Food was the least of his priorities.

As Remus neared James he made no effort to be sneaky about it. He gave James ample time to stop him and when he didn’t Remus knew that he was okay to talk to. After having dealt with James’s moods for more than seven years he knew better than to go into the situation headfirst. James needed to be coaxed out of his shell.

“You know the food really-“

“We thought you were the spy.” James’s broken voice said. Even though he was right beside him, it sounded as if it was coming from far away.

“What?” Remus asked genuinely confused.

James took a deep breath and put his cigarette out. His gaze was still locked on the grounds that the manor covered but that was only because he didn’t want to look into Remus’s eyes as he told him what he had thought of his loyalty just days ago.

With another shaky breath, he said, “We thought that _you_ were the spy.”

“Okay, I’m sorry, _what?_ ” Remus asked again but this time it was not out of confusion. Incredulous anger bubbled within him as James’s words still flashed in his mind. _“We thought that you were the spy.”_

“Voldemort had been collaborating with Werewolves, everyone knew that. You were late for Order meetings sometimes, after things started getting serious your visits became less and less frequent, nobody knew where you went to. When a couple of Order members went for a raid, the Death Eaters knew exactly where we’d be and knew who all would be there. Only select members were in that meeting when the plan was discussed. You were one of them. That’s why we didn’t make _you_ the secret keeper. That’s why Sirius didn’t go to _you_ when he wanted someone to talk to.”

He finally looked at Remus, and the sight of his blazing eyes told James that he had fucked up in believing that Remus could _ever_ be the one to sell him out. James just hung his head down, waiting for the punch to land on his face.

He was shocked, to say the least when he felt two arms encircle him in a vice-like grip and a warm gust of air hit his neck. Remus was breathing raggedly as he held tightly on to a shell shocked James.

James was beyond confused. He had expected Remus to hit him. He had expected Remus to yell at him, to possibly even denounce his Maraudership (and that would have been _worse_ than any punch or kick to the gut). He didn’t expect him to be hugging him tightly.

In his shock, James didn’t realize how long it had gone on for, but Remus probably had as he shakily let go of James only to grasp him tightly by the shoulders and almost forcing him to look into his eyes.

James was reluctant at first but it almost felt as if Remus’s gaze was hypnotizing him into meeting his gaze. And when he did, all he saw sadness. Not a trace of betrayal or anger, just pure unadulterated sadness.

(Well there _was_ anger there but it was for different reasons than what James thought)

When Remus knew that James wouldn’t dare break his gaze, he shook James’s shoulders with his hands as if trying to force sense into him.

“I don’t know what you were thinking about when you made those assumptions about me. But I know one thing, and that is that you were the very first friend I had ever made, _in my life!_ Everybody assumed I was a bookish nerd who disliked social interaction and kept away from me. It was you who refused to believe it, _YOU!_ ”

“ _You_ have made a better person in more ways than one James. On Full moon nights, it was _your_ idea to become an Animagi. _You_ decided to stick by despite my ‘furry-little-problem’ _,_ decided to risk your lives every month just so that it could get better for me. _You_ brought me into your circle. _You_ accepted me for who I am. Sirius and I would probably not even know each other had it not been _you._ _You_ made Hogwarts better James; you gave me happiness until I could learn to find it on my own.” Remus ranted out slightly short of breath.

James looked guiltily back at him, as his mind too yelled at himself for being a blind idiot.

There was a long pause where it seemed as if Remus was gathering his thoughts. A couple of tears are trailed across his cheeks during his rant and James felt ten times worse knowing that he had caused it.

Finally, Remus took a deep breath and looked back at James, his eyes looked empty yet through them James could see how shaken he was.

“And I think that you don’t know me well enough, cause I would never, _never,_ betray or even think of betraying someone who did all of that for me. James, you’re my best friend and I’m just sad and angry that you could even think _that_ of me.” He whispered brokenly.

James didn’t know what to say. So he did the next best thing he could (it turned out to be the first best or just… regular best). He hugged the crap out of his tall, nerdy, werewolf, dork friend. And he also chanted “ _I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry”_ over and over again like a broken record player.

Remus hugged him back just as fiercely. He drew his right hand back a bit and then-

-“Ow!” yelled James but it came out all muffled.

“That’s for being an idiot,” Remus said in a tone that was meant to be triumphant but came out all croaky because of the tears.

Oh did I mention that they both had started sobbing? They were. Full-blown sobs racked through their bodies. James’s snot was all over Remus’s sweater. It was disgusting, yet kind of cute.

And then the moment broke when Marlene rushed to them with excitement written all over her face, a clear contrast to what she had felt before.

She seemed oblivious to the predicament that her two friends on the balcony were in. She was _too_ hyper to notice much of anything at that point.

“Oh, you would not believe what just happened!”She squealed.

The guys broke apart from the hug as James asked what happened.

“Okay, so Lily and Sirius were sitting around two meters apart from each other they both had Viscy and Harry separately with them. Out of nowhere Harry started crawling towards Viscenya and then when he reached her he made grabby hands at her and she shifted a bit towards him and then they started babbling to each other and it was so cute!” she said it all in one breath.

In any other circumstance, James would compare Marlene’s current behaviour to that of the intern who had been assigned to him.

But now, in this current predicament… with the news that Marlene had given him, he was much too preoccupied with a sense of vindication to think of anything else. To his mind, the news was a testament to something that he had believed all along. The pain and hurt from before had taken a backseat for what he had learned now made him happy enough for ten.

Oh, now his mind screamed “ _Vindication”_ as he punched his fist in the air and yelled, “I KNEW IT!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there you have it, this is the longest chapter in the story yet and by god did it take a lot of time.   
> I dabbled with so many different themes and point of views, not to mention it took me a long time to try to keep the tone light and not too angsty. 
> 
> (My Zoom classes have started and all that I wish they had them on Discord instead)  
> Anyway, I hope you guys liked the chapter.  
> Let me know what you think of Remus and Marlene's characters, and about the chapter in general.
> 
> Thanks for reading, stay safe:)  
> much love,  
> Avi


	6. Birthday songs be awkward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's September 22, 1990.  
> It's Viscenya Black's birthday.  
> See what all has changed with the Potters and Blacks in these ten years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, here it is.  
> The chapter is shorter than most of the previous ones, but as I wrote it, I realised that since I was just introducing future characters, I'd have to keep it short. It would have been really long if I had gone into exploring all these characters in the first chapter that they'd been introduced in and would have taken away from the story. 
> 
> (You'll find an asterisk in a sentence somewhere in the chapter, let me know if it rings a bell ;) ) 
> 
> So this chapter sort of sets the stage for what it's gonna be like, don't worry, all the characters will get their due in the future chapters. And those will be longer than this one :)  
> .  
> I'm really glad you've read this far!  
> Lots of love :))

* * *

**_22 September 1990_ **

**_Black Residence,_ **

**_Mold-On the –Wold_ **

* * *

Viscenya Aurora Black knew a lot of things.

She knew certain facts about astronomy that she was sure even her father didn’t. She knew the multiplication table from one to twelve(something she had Aunt Lily to be thankful for) and she knew more about potions than Harry did (although to be fair _everyone_ knows more about Potions than harry does). She also had a great memory and that helped her keep the knowledge with her for longer than others could. So if you were to ask a friend or relative of hers if she was smart they’d say “Yeah, she’s very smart, she knows a lot of things.”

One thing she didn’t know though.

And it wasn’t something that she could just learn from a book or ask someone for help about.

She didn’t know what do when you’re standing in front of your birthday cake as everyone sings the Happy Birthday song. And boy did it show.

An awkward smile was taped to her face and it was painfully obvious that she wasn’t enjoying this.

That isn’t to say she didn’t like birthday parties, oh she did. Everyone would be happy, she’d get gifts, and Harry would be around much longer than he usually was. The day would be better in general. Even her parents would for one day forget everything about anything and try to make the day memorable for their daughter.

But this part, the one with the cake, oh she dreaded it. In the early years of her life, she basked in the attention everyone paid to her as she stood in front of the cake. For then, she had a one-track mind. She didn’t once think about how the song really didn’t make much sense or how she was just getting congratulated on ageing. Now, she had all that and more on her mind and all that information on her mind didn’t make it easier for her to just stand there and wait for the song to finish.

She looked around the crowd of people who had come for the birthday; there were Ron, Ginny, Fred and George Weasley there along with Neville Longbottom who had accompanied by his grandmother. Her uncle Remus was there with his girlfriend of two years, Guinevere. Uncle James and Aunt Lily were also there in the crowd, both and clapping and smiling about. Her sister Lyra was somewhere in there too, trying to get the best candid shots, for an eight-year-old she was passionate about photography. Lyra’s twin Leo was behind the crowd with the second-youngest Potter child, Fleamont. Both had gotten over the excitement of a birthday party fairly easily and were now in the middle of mock punching each other…

… You know, as most kids do!

Harry Potter was there too, and he had his eyes trained on Viscenya’s pained expression with a slightly amused and sympathetic smile. It just made him look as if he was suffering, yet he was happy about it*. He knew what she was going through; after all, you aren’t best friends for about ten years to not know when your friend is suffering.

Viscenya met Harry’s gaze and the awkwardness from her smile lifted just a smidge. It became just slightly more genuine. Harry just looked at and started clapping along with everyone and resumed singing the song that Viscenya had come to loathe.

The genuine smile that she had offered him only seconds ago was now slowly being taken over by an angry scowl as she mouthed traitor to Harry, careful t make sure that only he got the message and not some poor unsuspecting soul.

Her mother nudged her from the side and Viscenya broke from her scowl session as she got her bearings and cut into the cake. Everybody else cheered and clapped once again, Harry just chuckled and shook his head.

* * *

“Lyra come back here, right this second! No, I don’t care if you want those pictures!” Marlene yelled from one side of the backyard at her daughter. Little did she know that it had been Sirius who had egged her on to go ahead and finally go into the forest that surrounded their house.

From another side of the yard, James Potter could be heard discussing the latest Quidditch match very enthusiastically with Leo and Fleamont, Remus was also present in the conversation but since his girlfriend had left earlier he seemed content with the book he was reading. He only butted in to tell random facts about Quidditch and then left the conversation just as quickly.

Lily was picking up her drowsy five-year-old daughter Euphemia from a chair and proceeded to carry her to the drawing-room to get some proper sleep. Sirius was clearing out the plates and tables from the backyard now that the party had gotten over.

And making her way through this mess was Viscenya Black who had done her bit in clearing out the place and was now heading towards the front porch. It was the one place where she felt most at calm. There were a lot of reasons for it. The most obvious one was that despite it being the literal entrance to the house, it was left mostly undisturbed; the house was big enough in itself to keep the people entertained, and when everyone was inside the front porch remained quiet for a long time till they had to leave.

The second was the fact that the steps on the porch offered the best view to the stars that shined at night. Many would think that it would be the roof that one would go to if they had to observe and admire the nightly stars, but for Viscenya they shone brighter when she saw them from her vantage point at the stairs. Not to mention the old trees that lined their house formed brilliant silhouettes against the bright moon and that was something she would never trade. 

The third reason was the one that made this spot special _just_ for her. You see, everybody could come to that place for the quiet and the view but not everybody had a special connection to it. Not everybody had a best friend with whom they had deemed the place “their spot”. Viscenya had that, she had that with Harry. And after the hubbub of the party and the hosting, she was more than ready to go there and be with her favourite person in the world. Well, favourite person after George Lucas that is (that man was a god to Viscenya). But Harry didn’t need to know that.

She opened the front door from the inside just a crack to see if Harry was there and the mop of black hair that met her vision proved that he was.

He was sitting there dressed in his robes from before with his knees tucked under his arms. He was waiting for her.

As quietly as she could, she made her way towards him, tiptoeing around the places that she knew would creak, it also helped that her accidental magic somehow knew to help her at this moment so all her movements were deathly quiet. She moved ahead further until she was right behind him.

Harry remained just as oblivious as before of her presence.

She felt a bit bad for what she was about to do to him, but in all honesty, he knew her and he should know better than anyone else to not provide her with an opportunity like that.

A second passed before-

-“BOO!”

Harry just jumped a bit in his position and turned around to meet Viscenya’s excited gaze with an unimpressed smile of his own.

Viscenya, in turn, was smiling from ear to ear while she did the jazz hands.

“Really, _that’s_ your prank?” Harry deadpanned.

She stopped with the jazz hands, but her smile didn’t drop as she crouched down below, wiped at the stairs, sat down and shrugged.

“I had to think quick, can’t expect me to be brilliant all the time.” She said in a non-committal manner.

“Or any of the time,” Harry amended with a grin, “You’re losing your touch, Black.” He said as he knocked his shoulder with hers.

“Hardy har har Potter, you’re just jealous.” She bantered back, the grin not slipping from her visage.

“Pssh, I’d never be jealous of _your_ sub-par skills.” He scoffed.

Instead of being offended Viscenya just shook her head and laughed with her best friend, who himself was silently shaking with laughter.

His eyes danced with mirth as he looked at her and when she looked back, he could almost hear the unspoken thoughts in her mind.

“I missed your face today, dork.” She said.

“I’ve been here the entire while,” Harry said back.

“You know what I mean.” She said with a sigh.

Harry couldn’t deny that fact as he just hummed in agreement.

“I barely talked to you before for the last week and then I was excited for today because we’d be meeting again after so long,” –“Just one week.” Harry put in. – “After so long,” Viscenya said again, Harry just smiled, “And I was hoping that we would spend the day together flying or playing Quidditch, or just watching the Telly I guess.” She said morosely.

“The Telly?” Harry asked sceptically, “How did you get it to work in _your_ house, mum and dad couldn’t do it despite the many charms they had to negate.”

“Yeah, dad had a theory about that. He thinks that since the Manor is so very old with magic passed down from generations, it would be much more difficult to manipulate, even with uncle being the Lord of the house and whatnot. Even if we live in a magical village, our house is new and well, its magic is much easier to tackle.” She explained.

Harry thought over this for a moment and hummed, the explanation seemed legitimate enough to him.

“That doesn’t mean it works completely fine though, no. Sometimes all we get is static. The others, the picture gets very blurry and the voice comes out all distorted. But it works well enough to make do.” She put in at the end, “I still prefer going to the cinema though, the experience there is much better.” She said with a smile.

“Even if it doesn’t work that well, I’ll come here every day to see it. We don’t have much muggle technology at home; I only see it when we visit Grand mum and Grandpa.” Harry said.

This piqued Viscenya’s curiosity, “Oh yeah? How are they doing? It’s been a long time since I’ve gone to visit them.”

Viscenya had visited Harry’s maternal grandparents even without any proper relation to them, and it was only because the day she planned to meet up with Harry was the day he was supposed to go visit them. Not thinking much of it, she decided to tag along. And boy was she glad she did. Whatever she knew of grandparents were from books and the rare movie she saw. Her father loathed his birth family so she didn’t meet up with any of them, except for her Aunt Andromeda and from what she had heard from the two cousins, she could say that she was glad to not have known what her grandparents were like in real life.

She didn’t know anyone from her mother’s side of the family either since they had all been killed in an attack from when the war was still going on. Her mother was the sole surviving member of the family.

To the then eight-year-old Viscenya, Harry’s grandparents seemed like a dream. They were just like what she imagined them to be.

They were kind, sweet and smart (they had to be if they were related to Aunt Lily). Upon seeing Viscenya with Harry they asked no questions and accepted her without much problem. And when it was time to leave, they made Viscenya promise to come back and sent the two best friends away with heaps of muggle candy.

She liked them and felt a bit guilty for not having invited them to her birthday party. She’d write a letter and explain it, with hopes of being forgiven.

“They’re fine, they miss you, been asking if you’ve forgotten about them at this point.” Harry teased.

She just smiled uneasily.

“Well, I haven’t. I was thinking about them just now, I’ll probably write to them and try to meet up, you can come too.” She said.

“That’ll be fun and way better than the last time I went there.” He said, as he shivered and his face morphed into an expression of disgust.

“What happened the last time you went there?” she asked as her eyebrows furrowed.

“Dudley visited them too.” Was all he said, and Viscenya gasped.

“Oh Merlin, Harry I’m so sorry,” she said as her hand rubbed his back in comfort. She had met Harry’s oaf of a cousin once before and that was enough to last her a lifetime. She didn’t even _want_ to think about Harry went through.

“Yeah… It was pretty bad. Thank God uncle and aunt weren’t there; otherwise, Dad would’ve had a fit.”He said.

Despite how much Lily wanted to bridge the distance between her and her sister, Petunia seemed adamant on wanting to stretch it out further. It also didn’t help that James really hated the two.

“Well, we need to get that horrid memory out of your system and to replace it with something much more pleasant,” Viscenya said with conviction.

“Yep, we do,” Harry agreed, but after a moment of contemplation he added,  
“I don’t think that I’ll be able to rid myself of the memory though.”

“Well, we’ll have to try won’t we?” Viscenya said simply, “Besides, I want to meet them properly once before we leave for Hogwarts.”

“Yeah, but that’s a year away!” Harry pointed out.

“And don’t you wish it would be sooner?” she asked excitedly with a grin.

Let’s just say they had enough conversation fodder to last them the whole while.

* * *

They had been sitting outside for about two hours now, and their topics of conversation ranged from Grandparents to how did the Giant squid get into the Black lake. They were silent now though, their mouths were dry after having spoken non-stop. So they opted for lying on their backs, as comfortably as they could on the stairs and to look at the night sky.

The silence was blissful, but it was broken by Harry’s question, “Do you think I’ll be sorted in Gryffindor?” he asked timidly.

The question was unexpected for Viscenya. In her opinion, Harry was the most Gryffindor person in the whole world.

Viscenya just scoffed good-naturedly and replied, “Uh yes, I do. You’re reckless and proud of it. You’ll fit right in.”

He sat up straight and turned to look at her, “You know that’s not all there is to the house.” He accused, “Answer me honestly, Viscy. Do you _really_ think I’m fit for Gryffindor?”

She copied his movements and faced him.

“Yes, Harry James Potter, I honestly think you’ll be sorted in Gryffindor. You’re brave, loyal, an idiot,” she slipped in, and Harry noticed, “and kind. And if there was an epitome of Gryffindor, I’d say it was you.”

“… Thanks” he mumbled.

“You’re welcome.” She said with a smile.

“What about you huh?” he asked.

“I’ve told you this a thousand times over Harry, I’ll be in Gryffindor. Dad says it’s the best house, Mom says it’s the best house. They were both in Gryffindor and I’m their child. It’s in my genes to be in Gryffindor.” She said confidently.

“You think so?” He asked with raised eyebrows (he was trying to go for the single raised eyebrow look, but it seemed physically impossible for him to do it.”

“Oh, I know so.” She replied with a smile.

Ah, that was another thing Viscenya knew! 

Yeah... she was _definitely_ going to be a Gryffindor. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's over with.  
> Let me know what you think of all the non-canon characters that I've introduced in the story.  
> To clear out, Sirus and Marlene have three kids: Viscenya (11 years old)  
> Leo and Lyra (8 years old)  
> Meanwhile, the Potters have three kids themselves: Harry (10 years old)  
> Fleamont (8)  
> Euphemia( 5)  
> And yes Viscenya and Harry are friends with the Weasley's and Neville, I figured that since Arthur and Molly were in the original Order, they'd have encouraged friendships between their kids and the Potters and Blacks.
> 
> Also, I mentioned before in a comment that Viscenya won't be the sarcastic Mary Sue (who somehow doesn't play pranks?) that most other writers have every 'Sirius Black's daughter' character be. She may seem that way now, but she's human, she'll change. I feel that there's so much more depth to such kind of OCs that many people leave untouched.  
> Anyway, comment about what you thought of Viscenya and her relationship with Harry, also, what do you think of that last line? Will she be a Gryffindor? If not, which house do you think suits her best, given what you've read now?  
> I know it's very unrequited but there's a Hindi song that I feel perfectly captures the kind of relationship Harry and Viscenya share, if you're interested, let me know in the comments and I'll tell you about it :)  
> Much love,  
> Avi


	7. Quidditch and all is fine, but are you good at Exploding Snap?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just another glimpse into Harry and Viscenya's life and friendship. Turns out they're both cute sometimes ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo,  
> Another chapter in, and it would have come sooner but Online classes take up most of the time that I use for writing. The weekend's coming up so I hope I get some time in :) 
> 
> Anyway, This chapter wasn't particularly hard to write really, other than the fact that that I can't seem to be able to write younger characters while staying true to their age. I try my very best though, often thinking about myself as a child for reference. 
> 
> Let me know if it seems too unreal.

_**14 th April 1991** _

_**Potter Manor** _

* * *

“HARRY, TIDY YOUR ROOM!” yelled Lily for the fifth time that morning.

“Why though?” her son whined, “It’s only Viscenya. She doesn’t mind it.” he said back for the fifth time as well.

Lily swerved from her trajectory to the gardens where she had _planned_ on having a stress-free morning, Fleamont and Euphemia had gone to school, James had gone to the Ministry. There was only Harry left, and since he would have friends over, he’d be occupied. Normally she’d be at work too, at the Olde Society of Alchemy and Potions. But she had taken two days off to just have them to her own.

She wasn’t a proper alchemist, not yet. She _had_ given and passed all Ministry issued exams, still, Alchemy was such a wide-ranging subject that it took years and years of hard work to build a proper career out of it. She had started with this field in ’83 after things had relatively calmed down. And in the eight years, she had levelled up significantly at the Society. From writing reports and following other researchers, she now gave classes and mentored the newbies. She still wrote reports and assignments, but those she gave to the higher-ups. Her works now went for reviews where a couple of editors would go through them before it got published. She did all of this while conducting her research and occasionally teaming up with others to help them on projects of their own.

No doubt, doing all of this left her tired and in need of a break. It had gotten so very worse, to a point that she had begun to take out her frustrations on everybody in the house. That was when James advised her to take a day off and to relax for a while. And after hearing that idea, she immediately sent in a message to the supervisor and asked for a couple of days off. Seeing how hard she worked, her supervisor Ian wasted no time in allowing it. When she had gotten that letter, she planned on having two days to herself with no one and nothing to disturb her. She was wrong.

“Amazing,” she said as she entered his room- “What’s amazing?” her son asked- “Amazing how every part of that sentence was wrong.” She snapped.

Harry opened and closed his mouth indignantly and was about to retort when Lily explained to him what he had done wrong. “It’s not just Viscenya who is coming; Nev’ is going to be here too. Besides, her not minding it is not an excuse, you live in a pigsty! Clean it up Mr or no more ice cream for a week.” She warned

The warning didn’t have the effect Lily wished it would, as Harry just shrugged. Despite that, he moved and started picking up his splayed out journals and clothes. He’d just get the ice cream from dad.

Considering this dealt with she went inside the room, pulled Harry into a half hug and placed a kiss on his forehead. “I’m going to be outside for a while, I asked Rey to lay some snacks and drinks on the table.” She said as she carded her hands through his hair, _trying_ to clear some knots.

“Okay,” Harry mumbled

She left the room with a small smile on her face as she said, “have fun!”

Harry smiled a bit too, now over the slight scolding his mother had given him, “yeah… you too.”

As soon as the door closed, the pile of clothes in his arms dropped.

* * *

Neville and Viscenya had arrived almost at the same time, with Neville coming in first. Harry had led him to his room, and just a glimpse of it was enough to make Neville go around the room and start tidying it up the best he could. He was a _bit_ of a neat freak. No matter how good of a friend Neville was, Harry sure as hell wasn’t going to let him clean his room. So that prompted him to join in as well. Just ten minutes in and they were done with the entire ordeal. That was when Viscenya came in.

And she was surprised, never had she seen Harry’s room this neat before, it was unnerving. But then she saw Neville and got her explanation. Harry had expected her to question him over the condition, but when he saw the amusement in her eyes, he just mouthed ‘Neville’ and she replied with an ‘I know’

* * *

“You should’ve asked Ron to come over if you wanted to play Quidditch Harry,” said Neville miserably, “You know how bad I am at it, and I’ll be of no help.”

“That’s not true,” Viscenya put in immediately, even when Harry was about to agree with Neville. “You just don’t practice as much since your Grandmother’s so very protective of you.”

The trio was making their way to the grounds where a mini Quidditch pitch had been cleared out. It wasn’t an original part of the estate, but seeing how much of a fanatic James was, Fleamont and Euphemia had decided to go ahead and put a little something up. That one decision was something that Harry was thankful for. He didn’t have a lot of hobbies. He occasionally listened to music, sometimes watched a movie, rarely read a book. So for him, Quidditch was the perfect reprieve. If he didn’t have the sport to keep his mind off things he would’ve been bored out of his mind. The only good thing in his life would’ve been Viscenya then. And he was sure, no matter how much she liked to spend with him, even she wouldn’t want to spend every bleeding moment trying to entertain him. To summarise that, Harry James Potter loved Quidditch.

Neville Longbottom didn’t.

“She’s protective of me _because_ I’m terrible at it. She knows that if I go even two feet within a broom, I’m going to somehow hurt myself.” He bemoaned.

Viscenya looked at Harry with pleading eyes, trying to get him to improve their friend’s morale. If she was being honest, she didn’t think that Neville was a bad Quidditch player just because he didn’t practice that often. While that certainly played a major part in it, it was majorly the fact that the boy wasn’t made for the sport. And she didn’t think any less of him for it. After all, not everyone can be good at everything. And he not being at Quidditch was not at all a testament to his worth as a person.

She had tried explaining this to him before, but to the boy, inherently not being good at the sport was worse than not being good because of a lack of practice. The sobbing that had followed Viscenya’s statement, made it clear for her to never try to lift Neville’s spirits in her way.

Harry saw the look she sent him, and just sighed, “Look, Neville, you’re not good at Quidditch _yet._ Doesn’t mean you won’t get better. Just drop that attitude and come play with us!”

“You really think so?” he asked after a while.

“Yes Neville,” Viscenya said as she put a hand at his shoulder and shared a meaningful look with Harry, “We really think so.”

* * *

“Now, since we’re only three people there’s nothing more we can do then try to block goals as the other person tries to shoot in the Quaffles,” Viscenya said strategically. “I’ll go first, Harry and Neville you’ll have to block me. Everyone gets ten chances okay?”

Whenever it came to Quidditch Viscenya was just as passionate as Harry, if not more. And while Harry seemed content to play his own game, Viscenya automatically assumed command of the group of people that played with her. It wasn’t as if she bossed her way around and bullied people into submission, it’s just the fact that she was so confident in her knowledge and the ‘leader voice’ that she adopted made everyone naturally want her to be in command. And as she did her magic, this time as well the two guys couldn’t help but agree.

“Great!” she said and clapped her hands, as she started mounting her Cleansweep 7. As much as she and Harry were excited for the release of the Nimbus 2000, she couldn’t help but feel at home with her Cleansweep. It had been her first proper broomstick, and no matter how many times she had fallen off it, it would be more special to her than the fastest brooms.

She settled on to the broom as a familiar homey feeling washed over her. She looked to the side towards Harry who also seemed comfortable on his broom; it was only the next sight that made her wince slightly. Neville didn’t look as accustomed to the contraption. He too was sporting a wince as he took in his awkwardness and compared it to the ease with which Harry and Viscenya both held themselves.

But when he met her gaze, he saw nothing but support in them, and that helped. Oh, he knew that he was bad, and no matter how encouragingly Viscenya smiled his awful Quidditch skills wouldn’t change but it helped in knowing that she didn’t judge him for it. He sighed in resignation and kicked off shakily from the ground.

His attempt at a good lift-off was sub-par at best, and that made Viscenya cringe. She kind of felt bad now for suggesting a game of Quidditch, but she thought that with enough practice he might actually become better.

“Hey, let’s get going. Neville’s looking very unsure.” Harry said and broke her out of her reverie.

“Yeah,” said Viscenya dejectedly, something that Harry picked up on and stored away for interrogation later, “Lets.”

* * *

All the kids were in Harry’s room now. The three of them too tired from all the flying to do much else than to play Exploding Snap. Viscenya’s dejected behaviour had improved greatly after she scored her first goal and did wonders to lift everyone’s spirits. Seeing their resident Quidditch fanatic feel let down while in the air had somehow made everyone feel uneasy. Neville’s pessimism also didn’t help.

It all changed with Viscenya’s excitement though, her whoops of joy at every successfully scored goal made the guys laugh and become a bit more enthusiastic. Since then their moods had improved ten-fold and even Neville didn’t feel _that_ bad over not getting a single shot in. 

A race had ensued between Viscenya and Harry after the game at Harry’s behest. He claimed that Viscenya was bound to win the first game so he might as well play to his strengths. He won the race of course. What Harry lacked in precision, he made up for in speed, and his father said that he’d make a great seeker. Viscenya, on the other hand, was as precise as a hawk, but she wasn’t the fastest. They balanced each other out.

Of course, they couldn’t spend the entire time on the field. So it was suggested that they go back inside and wait till Neville’s grandmother sent a message calling him back.

That decision found them sprawled on the floor of Harry’s bedroom as Neville once again dealt everyone their cards. A bit of smoke was emanating from the sleeve of Viscenya’s shirt, while Harry sported a singed eyebrow. Neville was the only who remained unharmed. What _he_ lacked in Quidditch skills he more than made up for in Exploding Snap. He was yet to lose a single round, and with every win, his grin only grew wider. And Viscenya’s scowl deepened. He could at least _try_ to feel bad at their losses. Little did she know, her scowl only spurred him on further. Neville was by no means a vain person but Viscenya looked too adorable with the smoke incessantly blowing from her sleeve and the scowl in place. Besides he’d just lost amazingly at Quidditch, he _deserved_ a win.

The cards had been dealt and everyone was beginning to start the game when a knock sounded through the room. Harry made a non-committal grunt as a way of allowing the person to come in, he was too busy going through his cards to do much else. He _did not_ want to lose another round.

Lily peeked her head in, “Neville, your grandmother called through the Floo, I’m afraid it’s time for you to head back home dear.” She said sympathetically. She then looked at Harry, “Oh dear, what happened to you?” she asked incredulously.

“Yeah… it got singed, I lost.” He answered.

“Evidently,” she said drily as she entered the room and began waving her wand as she came near Harry, as spell later he was as good as new. She moved her gaze to Viscenya whose sleeve hadn’t stopped smoking, “Seriously, how bad are you guys at this game?” she muttered as she set on to fix the problem.

When that had gotten out of the way, her eyes naturally flitted across the room, and the neatly placed toys and the properly folded and piled clothes made her raise her eyebrows appreciatively and regarded Harry with an impressed smile. “See?”She asked, “Cleaning up wasn’t so difficult, was it? It looks so much better now.”

Viscenya just snorted into her newly fixed sleeve as Neville coughed a bit. Harry just looked around awkwardly, as he did best.

On hearing his cough she realized that the boy still needed to be sent home, “Come on Neville, it’s getting late and I don’t want to be on Augusta’s bad side.” She said, “Yeah… Neither do I.” Neville muttered drily, something that he rarely did. The comment made Lily stop in her tracks as she turned around and looked at the ten-year-old boy with a fond smile, “Yeah, you’re Alice’s son alright.” She said with a smile.

A faint pink colour dusted Neville’s cheeks, not in embarrassment but rather in pride, pride at being a bit like his parents. His grandmother never missed an opportunity to remind him how brave his parents were. And while she didn’t intend for the comments to hurt Neville, they did. For they only served as a reminder to him, a reminder that told him that he’d never be as good as them.

So, for the boy who was constantly insecure, Lil’s comment made to improve his dwindling esteem. He smiled at her and she reached out a hand to ruffle his hair. “Okay come on now,” she turned to look at Harry and just then she remembered, “Harry, dad’s here. Go meet him, he was looking for you.”

“Yeah… I’ll be there.” He said distractedly since he was now busy trying to defeat Viscenya (he needed a win damn it!).

Lily just looked at him unsurely but turned around nonetheless.

“Bye Nev’!” Viscenya called out as the door swung shut. She heard a faint goodbye sounding from the other side.

“Aren’t you going to go downstairs and see Uncle James?” Viscenya asked in a drawl as she picked around her cards.

A moment of silence followed that as Harry put a card down on the floor, he answered, “Yeah I will. In a moment…” his tongue peeked out a bit as he scrutinized his deck of cards. That was exactly the moment when Viscenya decided to look up at him.

Harry’s hair still had the windswept look from before, only adding to its messy state, the pitch of black colour of it contrasting perfectly with his pale skin. The flush in his skin was now gone but she could just imagine how well it would add on to the picture. The glasses were slowly slipping down the bridge of his nose, and every so often his hand would brush against it to push it back up. The attempt would only be futile for the glasses would slip back down again. Viscenya thought he looked oddly… cute.

And she decided she quite liked this look.

Harry looked up and met her gaze and said something that she didn’t register. She was about to ask him to repeat what he had said, but then his expression turned into a panic frenzy as he waved his hands around in front of her. She just looked confusedly at him. She opened her mouth to ask what was wrong when a low sizzling sound emanated from the deck of cards that were below her. Just as the situation clicked into place, they blew up.

* * *

“Okay, stay still Pup,” James said softly as he struggled to keep Viscenya from fidgeting. Harry was looking from his left at his best friend with concern. He felt bad for not have been able to stop it, but in his defence, he reminded her a lot of times, only she didn’t listen to him, seemed as if she was in a trance of some sort.

What had happened was that the cards in the deck below her had exploded after Viscenya didn’t play her round. Harry had laid his card down and it was the other person’s job to locate it’s identical from the deck below. When Viscenya didn’t do that, the cards promptly lit on fire and singed both of her eyebrows. It wasn’t anything that she hadn’t faced before (after all you don’t just play Exploding Snap for most of your life and not get some part of your body singed), but still, the shock of it all made it worse.

Just as the ordeal had gotten down, they made their way downstairs and located one of Harry’s parents. James was conveniently heading towards Harry’s room, so it was easy to find him.

That found them in the dining room, it was seven o’clock and dinner was about to be served. James had sat Viscenya down in one of the chairs and promptly began to fix the mess. It proved difficult as she squirmed and fidgeted. Harry laid his hand on her shoulder to get her to calm down, which worked wonders. Initially, it was the unwarranted touch that made her go still, but after a few mini-seconds the familiarity of the touch weighed down on her and she let her uncle fix the damage much more easily.

A few spells later, her eyebrows were back to their original form, and she felt loads better.

James sat back down and rubbed at his forehead, harry too pulled up a chair and sat next Viscenya. This, of course, brought the memories of what she was thinking of before back to her mind, yeah… Harry had looked cute then. She looked at him again and traced her eyes over his hair, it was somehow even worse than before (courtesy of James ruffling it up, for god, knows what reason).  
  


He picked up a glass from the table and tilted it slightly upwards to drink the water. So Viscenya did the most obvious thing one does when their friend drinks water( doesn't matter if said friend looked cute at one point) -

-“Ow! What the hell Viscy?!” He exclaimed as water dribbled down his face and dampened the shirt he was wearing. She had merely forced some magic to tip the glass a bit more upward.

Viscenya laughed raucously and was soon joined in by James. Harry looked on in annoyance; the wet of the water on his neck was making him squeamish. He was about to speak up and exclaim at her further when he was interrupted by another, a wave of fresh laughter that bubbled from Viscenya lips even when she had tried to keep it at bay. It stopped just as abruptly as it had started.

Harry sought to speak up once more, but then a heard a loud squeak come from Viscenya’s side. Her face was red from having kept the laughter in. Her shoulder was shaking uncontrollably, and her mouth was set in a thin line as she willed herself to not let loose. Harry sighed…

… And that set her off again.

The water had now dried off from his body but his wet shirt still clung to him. He gave her a deadpan look as he waited for her to stop. And as he waited, he saw how her cheeks were flushed a very light pink. Her eyes, whose colour was visible even from the longest distance, were now closed as Viscenya clapped her hands every so often, clearly not over the god-awful prank she had played. Some of her pitch-black hair escaped from the clips that they had been styled into, and now covered parts of her face. A short lock of hair covered one eye; some other stray strands marred her right cheek.

The raucous laughter from before had now subsided into soft giggles, but every so often she would imitate Harry’s reaction and it would come back. By this time his annoyance was gone, as his eyes kept flitting across her features. The picture she painted was certainly not neat, more hair had escaped the clutches and now some of it clung to her neck because of the sweat that had accumulated.

Yeah… sweat, messy hair, raucous laughter… That was Viscenya alright.

And she looked oddly… cute

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, how'd you liked it?
> 
> Like I said before, I personally feel that the way I'm not that great when to comes to capturing how younger characters deal with emotions like attraction. I have no other reference point as well since here in India most kids don't really get into the 'I-Like-That-Person' phase till the 8th grade. So, if at any point you feel that it could be made better, let me know, constructive criticism is always welcome!
> 
> I'm trying not to make this a very cliche love story as most people do when it comes to romances. So that means that I'll try to avoid basic romantic tropes that I feel are way too overused. 
> 
> Again, if you didn't read it in the last chapter, there's a Hindi song that I feel perfectly captures Harry and Viscenya's friendship, mention in the comments if you're interested:)
> 
> Thank you for reading, the subscriptions, kudos and existing in general!!
> 
> Much love,  
> Avi


	8. The snake's out of the bag

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Where are you from"   
> the snake jabbed its tail towards the sign on the right  
> 'Boa Constrictor, Brazil'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life was shit for a couple of weeks, so much so that I couldn't find the energy to do mundane tasks, let alone write a chapter. 
> 
> it's still shitty now, but I'm trying to not let it get to me. 
> 
> I initially had a really long chapter written out, but then I deleted it because it was how I felt at the time, terrible. 
> 
> Sorry for the really long delay in the update, but I know for a fact that if I posted the chapter that I had written out earlier, then I would have regretted it. So here is one that I know I won't.
> 
> Let me know how you found my version of the iconic Boa Constrictor scene.

* * *

“What do you mean no?” Harry asked as his mother gave him the same answer she’d given him all the times he’d asked her before.

“I mean that you can't take Viscenya to a party that she isn't invited to," Lily said as she massaged her temples.

“But I’ll die of boredom there mum! See my side of the argument too!” Harry pleaded with her.

“You won’t die of boredom Harry; nobody has ever _died_ of boredom. And I would know what boredom is, I had to sit through your aunt Petunia’s graduation ceremony.” She informed him.

“Well this is her _son’s_ graduation from an idiot to a year older version of that idiot, consider it the same thing” Harry reasoned.

“Harry, grandma and grandpa called for it. They’ll be there for some of the time and they wanted you to be there. You know how they are." Lily explained, finally pulling out the big guns. “Besides I don’t think Marlene would forgive me if made her daughter go through _that_ kind of torture.”

“A-ha! So you do agree that it’s bad.” Harry exclaimed triumphantly.

“I never said it wasn’t. All I’m saying is that you have to go, and maybe you can _try_ to enjoy yourself.” She said with a pointed look.

Seeing that the battle was lost, Harry turned away with resignation. They were fighting over whether it was necessary for Harry to go to Dudley's eleventh birthday party or not. While Harry vehemently argued that it wasn't, Lily said that no matter how unpleasant the ordeal was, he'd have to go through it. The argument didn't go as planned for Harry.

Seeing Harry so let down, Lily decided to make amends and called out, “ _Fine,_ you can have Viscenya over tomorrow!”

Harry didn’t turn around but yelled out an okay anyway. Lily still felt a bit bad for forcing a dreary day on her son. She wouldn’t have felt so had she seen the wide, face-splitting smile that had taken over Harry’s features, as he tried to keep the skip out of his step.

* * *

"This Knickerbocker Glory isn't good, I want another one," complained Dudley.

That was all he needed to say before Vernon Dursley, a large man with a walrus moustache who also happened to be his father and a scary person when angry, yelled at the attendant at the stall to make a better one. The first ice-cream was promptly thrown in the dustbin by a bony, horse-like lady who happened to be Dudley’s mother; Petunia Dursley.

Harry just looked on in amusement.

He hadn’t spent a lot of time with Dudley, but that isn’t to say that they hadn’t seen each other at all. They met up at least thrice a year, more often than that if their grandparents felt a bit frisky. Despite this, Harry could say that he knew his cousin’s temperament well. Well enough to know what could trigger Dudley’s bouts of anger (although it didn’t take a genius to figure _that_ out. It was simple, make one thing go against him, and he’ll lose it).

Armed with this knowledge, Harry just had to wait for things to go wrong, and then simply relax and watch as the events unfolded. Right now, Dudley's fuming countenance was very amusing to Harry. Even after being placated with a new ice-cream, one with enough toppings and fudge, Dudley's bad mood didn't dissipate entirely. That added on to the already sour mood that Dudley was carrying since before the excursion had started. Apparently, he hadn't gotten enough gifts for his birthday.

Once the entire thing with the ice-cream was done with, they went on with the trip.

The various animals of the Zoo were fun to watch, the birds especially (Harry had seen a couple of parrots that were trained to speak a few words; he had the time of his life trying to hold a conversation with them.)

If Harry was being completely honest, he was having a pretty good time here. The Dursley's gave him a wide berth. They had put on their façade in front of Harry's grandparents and tried to engage him in conversation without seeming hostile. But now, without them here, they barely spared him a look, for that Harry was grateful. Dudley’s friend Piers also chose to stick with him, occasionally sending sneers and directing jabs at Harry.

Harry didn't mind it, he had met Malfoy once; he was prepared for anything. It was a shame that Viscenya wasn’t there with him, had she met Piers in real life, she’d have so much more material for her insults aimed at Malfoy.

Once they were done with the amphibians in the Zoo (apparently, they were going all around the establishment, Dudley would have complained about the walking, but before they even set foot in one of the sub-camps his parents would buy him a snack; that kept him going), they went to visit the reptile centre. That one made Harry nervous.

He had a secret that he hadn't told a lot of people, only two people in the world knew about it, him and Viscenya. If it had been his way he would've not told her either, but the circumstances of that time made it impossible for him to get away with it without an explanation.

He was scared of this… ‘power’, so much so that he hadn’t told anyone, except for his best friend. Even his parents didn’t know. He thought about telling uncle Sirius, just to test how his parents would take it. His uncle and father were very similar in temperament, so if uncle Sirius reacted in a certain way to something, Harry was sure that his father would do the same as well. But he didn’t realize exactly how much courage it would take to admit that one simple fact.

(Not so ‘ _simple’_ really, but yeah)

Eventually, he didn't go through with it. He felt bad for keeping this piece of information from his parents but it wasn’t as if it was eating him alive. He only wanted to tell them in the first place, so that he’d have nothing to hide.

So he decided that he’d let the situation reveal itself. If he ever came across a snake while his parents were with him, he’d do nothing to hide this abnormality. That’s how he would let them know. Despite all the talk of him being a thorough Gryffindor, he felt very scared at the prospect of directly telling the secret to his parents.

Whenever the situation would arise, he’s let the cat out of the bag, till then, only Viscenya would know and he was happy with that.

He drifted towards the cage that held a long winding snake, which looked thoroughly bored with existence. He didn’t say anything but just looked on, observing its scales and features when Dudley came along.

_Thud, thud, thud_

Dudley’s fat fingers jabbed at the glass wanting to wake the snake up, or get it to do anything that would amuse him.

The snake didn’t humour the birthday boy. Harry winced slightly in annoyance as Dudley incessantly yelled and called on the snake for attention.

“Make it move!” Dudley’s demanded of his father when he was done trying to vie for the snake’s attention.

Mr Dursley rapped his knuckles on the window briefly, as if the snake would adhere to social convention and appreciate the fact that Mr Dursley acted like a gentleman.

Needless, to say it didn't. The snake barely even moved a centimetre, before Dudley declared that it was a waste of time, and moved on. Being a single child had led Dudley to believe that people would always be there for him when called upon; the snake didn’t fit that mould, and that made Dudley angry.

Once Dudley, his father and his friend was gone, Harry looked around a bit before he engaged the snake in a conversation.

“ _Sorry about that”_ Harry said sympathetically to the snake. 

The snake raised his head in a manner that said, "I get that all the time"

A beat passed before the snake recoiled a bit and hissed, “ _You are human, yet you speak my tongue, how?”_

The snake's eyes were narrowed slits, evidence of the fact that it was wary of Harry.

“ _I don’t know either, I’ve been able to all my life”_ Harry hissed back with a shrug.

When the snake didn’t add anything, Harry knew that it would take more time than usual to get the being to like him. Most garden snakes that he’d find would always be overjoyed that there was a speaker amongst them. Harry put it down to the fact that since the snakes lived in the magical world, they weren't alien to the concept of wizards talking to creatures like themselves. But for a snake that has been in the muggle world since its birth, Harry realized that it must be difficult for the Being to just comprehend it all.

“ _Where are you from?”_ he prodded.

The snake still wasn’t trusting of Harry but, it jabbed its tail towards a sign to the side of the glass cage.

_‘Boa Constrictor, Brazil’_

Harry himself had never been to Brazil but Viscenya had, and he’d heard wonderful things about the place from her, “ _That’s nice, Have you ever been there?”_ he asked.

The snake again jabbed its tail towards the sign and Harry read on:

_‘The specimen was bred in the zoo.’_

“ _So, you’ve never been there,"_ Harry said with a tinge of sadness lacing his words. He truly felt bad for the snake. Somehow the being picked up on this and softened a bit towards Harry.

Just as it shook its head in conformation a loud voice yelled, “DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON’T _BELIEVE_ WHAT IT’S DOING!”

Harry whipped around to see Dudley’s friend Piers look around in shock. Harry’s mind became a whirlwind of thoughts.

Did Piers see him talk to the snake or did he just see the snake move?

Did anyone else see him?

And in that confusion he barely noticed Dudley wobble towards them at the fastest pace that he could.

“Move _away_ , you!”Dudley said as he unceremoniously shoved Harry in the stomach, which led him to fall on the floor. 

Dudley pressed his abnormally large face on the glass, his nose stuck to the cage and he looked quite like an idiot. But Harry noticed none of that.

Whatever version of burning hot rage a ten-year-old could feel, Harry felt it as he looked up at Dudley from his position on the floor. He had taken Dudley's sneers and jabs throughout the day, but this was the last straw.

Oh, how he wished that Dudley would fall into the very cage he was peering into.

The glass that held the Constrictor promptly vanished.

Dudley and his friend Piers fell headfirst into the cage.

Chaos ensued.

Without any regard to the flailing boys in the cage, the snake slithered out of the confines and landed on the floor. Mr and Mrs Dursley who had been screaming as it is, now screamed louder as the snake moved past them. Their yells were joined in by the other people who were visiting the Reptile house at that moment. Children and adults alike tried to gain a higher vantage point to escape the snake’s wrath. They lifted their legs off the floor the best they could while also screaming bloody murder.

The employees of the Zoo weren’t fairing any better, while they weren’t screaming, they seemed to have gone into a shock as they scrambled to calm the people down and to get the appropriate personnel to capture the snake.

Harry was still lying on the floor. He lifted himself on his elbows as the snake neared his body. Unlike before, the snake seemed much more open to Harry now. How could it not, after all, Harry had freed him for what might have been a lifetime of captivity.

It slithered towards Harry and bowed its head.

Harry just looked on bewildered beyond belief.

‘ _Thanks, amigo, Brazil here I come'_ was the last thing Harry heard from the snake as it slithered past his body that was still in shock.

And then he chanced a look towards his cousin. The zoo employees had managed to get Dudley's top half out of the pit. They were now struggling to get his legs out of the cage.

His eyes moved to the right just a bit when his gaze was met with the heated glare of his uncle's. A weight dropped in his stomach.

* * *

“Lily, stop laughing.”

The snickers didn't subside. James looked at his wife with pursed lips trying to reign in his laughter. "Lils, please. I beg you."

Lily just covered her mouth with a fist _trying_ to keep herself from bursting out loud in raucous laughter, which she was partly successful in. But her slowly reddening face and the shaking of her shoulders were evidence enough that she was far from taking this seriously. 

“He set a snake on his cousin, _your_ _nephew!_ ” James said with force, willing his wife to take this seriously. How he wished the roles were reversed and that it wasn’t him who was supposed to be the responsible one. But making the mistake of thinking that Lily Potter would be responsible when it came to her sister was on James. He should’ve known that his wife, who had given up long ago on making amends with her sister would under no circumstances think that the fact that her son had set a snake on his cousin, her nephew, was something to be taken seriously.

At that Lily dropped all pretences and let out full-blown laughs. So much so that at one point no sound emanated from her at all. She gripped the table in front of her for support with one hand as the other clutched at her stomach.

Harry, who was nervous beyond belief before, now felt slightly more at ease. He even cracked a smile at his mother's behaviour.

Just then, his younger brother came into Harry’s room, obviously wanting to hear what the hubbub was all about. Even before Harry had come home, the news of what had happened had reached James and Lily.

James had sent one of the young Aurors to tail Harry while he was out with the muggles. He couldn’t just leave Harry alone under the ‘care’ of his extended ‘family’ while Pettigrew was still at large. It was fairly easy for James to convince the young Auror to do his bidding. For one, James Potter was well on his way to becoming the Head of the Auror Department, besides he was much too popular with or without his upcoming promotion for people to refuse him. For another, it was the Boy-Who-Lived he was talking about. Not that James liked to pull that fact to get people to do something for him, but if it meant ensuring his son’s safety, then why not? At the slightest mention of Harry, the youngling was practically salivating at the chance to go out and do the fieldwork.

“Did you really make Dudley fall into a cage?”Fleamont asked with barely hidden fascination, there was no doubt that he admired his older brother. But every so often Harry would do something that would add fuel to the fire that was Fleamont’s awe of him.

(From behind the room, Lily’s laughter turned several decibels louder at that)

But Harry was quick to explain himself, “W- Well, I didn’t _make_ him fall into the cage,” he said hastily, hazarding a glance at his father, “Nor did I set the snake _on_ him.”

“All I did was made the glass that held the cage together vanish. That’s it! I swear.” Harry said with his arms up in surrender.

"Although I wanted to set the snake on Dudley, I didn't. He pushed me out of the way and then I got mad, and then I wished that he'd fall into the cage and then he did because the glass had vanished!" he explained further, quite out of breath.

“Oh,” Fleamont said dejectedly and visibly deflated, “Well, that’s not cool at all.” 

James who had earlier been the only person who wanted to treat this conversation seriously, now found himself nodding along to what his youngest son had said, “Yep, Harry you could have done better.”

Lily wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes, as she sobered up a bit.

“While I agree with James in that setting a snake would have been ‘cooler’; I also understand why you didn’t do it. After all, it’s not as if you can _talk_ to snakes or anything.” She said offhandedly.

Harry sucked in a sharp breath at that. It was now or never, this was the chance he had been waiting for. While he had to admit this made it difficult for him to reveal the secret more naturally, it was still a gateway and he would take what he got.

“…well,” Harry began, “there _might_ have been a way for me to set the snake on him.”

James screwed his eyes in confusion as he looked at Harry, “What do you mean?”

Harry rubbed his hands over his face, trying to summon the courage that his parents had in droves, which he hoped they had passed on to him.

He forced himself not to cry as he screwed his eyes shut and started to explain this nasty predicament.

“Uh, well you see… eh… I- I have f- found that… I can – _oh Merlin_ ”

He couldn’t do it; he couldn’t say it out loud.

Lily, who earlier found it difficult to keep a straight face, was now more serious than ever. “What is it, love? You know you can tell us anything, right?”

Harry nodded briefly at that, not taking in the words. Man, this would've been way easier if Viscenya had been here. Knowing that there was someone who didn't judge him for this 'gift' would have made this easier. Heck, even if she didn't know, her presence in itself would have given him something else to focus on, except for his parents' reactions.

As Harry took his time, James and Lily shared a worried look.

A couple of moments of tense silence passed, even eight-year-old Fleamont kept quiet, while he didn't understand the severity of the situation, he realized that it must've been something really serious for both his parents to be this worried about it.

Harry took one deep breath, “I can talk to snakes.”

James slipped from his seat on the chair.

Fleamont smiled widely and whispered, “ _Cool”_

And Lily muttered a lowly, “fuck”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment down below what you liked about this chapter, also what do you think of Lily and Petunia's relationship. It's something that I imagined would give a bit more flavour to Lily's character. Often Lily is portrayed as this uptight, rule-following prude, which is something that I'm sick of. Yes, she may have been that way in school, but I can't imagine her being with James for more than ten years and still not developing a good sense of humour. 
> 
> anyway, stay safe and fight for what's right not what is easy.


	9. Diagon Alley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The duo goes to Diagon Alley to get their supplies. Other stuff happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's currently 3 in the morning where I am, and I stayed up later than usual just so that I could get his chapter out. I felt really bad for postponing it, for minuscule reasons so I just sat down and got it done. 
> 
> I really hope you like it! I had a lot of fun writing this one, and I think you'll understand why once you read it :) This chapter would have been longer but I realised that it seemed very fragmented and so I cut off some parts. 
> 
> Thank you for reading!!

* * *

"You've never been to Gringotts?"

"I've never been to Gringotts."

“You have _never_ been to Gringotts?" asked Lyra again sceptically.

“I have _never_ been to Gringotts," Harry answered again earnestly. 

Lyra didn’t say anything but she looked weirdly at him. Behind her sceptical gaze, Harry could practically see the cogs turning in her head, trying to figure out how a person raised in the Wizarding world could not have gone to the famous bank.

Her shrewd gaze on Harry didn't falter even as several seconds passed. Harry's discomfort was evident. Despite the girl being almost two years younger than Harry, there were times when he felt intimidated by her. And it seemed as if he was the only one who felt this way because he had asked Viscenya if she thought so too, but her response was disappointing to Harry. 

She had laughed at him and waved his concerns away for Lyra followed Viscenya’s words as if they were gospel, so much so that her passion for photography stemmed from the fact that Viscenya once fancied herself to be a movie-director after she had seen the second Star Wars film. Even though it was a fleeting fancy at best, that two month period of her yelling ‘Action!’ and moving around the house with a fake camera pointed at everyone shaped Lyra’s mind majorly. That isn’t to say that the youngest Black daughter didn’t enjoy this passion of hers; she did. Even after Viscenya had grown out of that phase, Lyra continued to pursue this hobby. But everyone knew that in some way or the other, had Viscenya not gone through that period then Lyra may not have discovered her passion at all.

Safe to say, Lyra never felt the need to ‘intimidate’ her elder sister at any point in her life. Besides, it’s not as if she could, the minute someone started overpowering Viscenya she somehow shot the person down a few pegs; effortlessly (Draco Malfoy had _tried_ to do that whenever they crossed paths, needless to say, he was unsuccessful). Sirius put it down to the fact that his daughter was confident in herself, which was never a bad thing. Harry and James, on the other hand, had a theory that everybody in that family was a closeted Slytherin. (Harry had mentioned that to Viscenya once and she had almost pushed him down the stairs for that comment, “Oh bugger off will you?” she had asked him)

“Everything okay here? You’re ready Harry?” Viscenya asked as she arrived on the scene. This intrusion broke Lyra’s steady speculative gaze on Harry, and also made the boy infinitely more comfortable.

Viscenya had just finished getting ready, well… _almost_ finished getting ready; she had haphazardly put on her shoes and was now close to hopping around to fit her foot's heel in.

She put her hand on Harry’s shoulder for support, as the other hand helped her ease her heel inside the stubborn leather of the article. Harry’s eyes snapped quickly to where her hand was, distinctly aware of its weight as it pressed down on his shoulder. The palm of her hand was gripping his shoulder tightly and he could practically feel its warmth seep into his body. The barely-there sound of feet tapping on the floor broke Harry’s reverie as his gaze snapped just as quickly as before to where the sound was coming from (although a part of his mind remained fixated on the weight that was pressing down on his shoulder). 

Leo had come out from his room and was in the process of adjusting the straps on his satchel that he was carrying.

Harry felt Viscenya’s hand move away and assumed that she had been successful in trying to nudge her foot in, he was right.

She now stood on her feet, with both their heels tucked inside the shoes. She still looked rather uncomfortable though.

“What’s in the bag?” she asked her brother as she shifted from foot to foot.

“Things that I wanted to get repaired, the spells on the alarm clock are weak; not only does it show the wrong time but also starts ringing at odd times during the day. That’s just _one_ of the wonky things. I've been meaning to get them sorted out for _ages_ , but nobody could take out the time.” He explained.

“So you’re carrying garbage?” Lyra put it simply.

"No, I'm not! This is _not_ garbage!" Leo spat back hotly, he got passionate when it came to such things  
“They hold emotional value!” he said indignantly.

“A _clock_ holds ‘emotional value’?” Lyra asked disbelievingly.

Leo made to reply but his voice died in his throat as Viscenya called out, “Shut it, both of you!”

It was as if her words were a command that they couldn’t trespass. Lyra didn’t say anything else and Leo also controlled his breathing which had become much laboured during the short argument. Contrary to what everyone thought their relationship would be Leo and Lyra despite being twins didn’t see eye to eye on most matters. It would often be Lyra who would point out or mock him for something and Leo who would rise to the bait and seek to defend his honour with facts and statements filled with righteous indignation.

Usually, their parents would jump in and resolve the issues, but whenever they weren't there, the responsibility fell on Viscenya. And just as she had no problem commanding people on the Quidditch pitch, she easily quelled all arguments by using her 'captain voice'.

Right now, there was silence in the living room of the house where the kids had assembled, waiting for their parents to Floo in from the ministry at any moment to take them to Diagon Alley. Well, it would just be Sirius and Marlene who would come in now. James had a meeting with the current head of the department and some other important officials. Sirius bet that it was to do a final check of his character; to see if he would be fit for the role of department head. James knew it deep down as well and that was why he wouldn't dare miss out on this. Lily, on the other hand, had to present a part of her thesis to her supervisor and the board at the Society so that they continued their funding of the project. As a result, they thought it best that Sirius and Marlene take their kids and Harry to the Alley to get his and Viscenya's Hogwarts supplies.

Why would they be going to Diagon Alley all of a sudden you ask? That would be because they had gotten their Hogwarts Acceptance letters. Almost a month after the incident at the Zoo the letters had arrived at the Potter and Black residences. Viscenya had screamed her throat raw and Harry had almost fainted. After they had gotten over their... reactions, they had written to each other and to all the other people who they knew would also get their letters to ask if they had gotten them yet or not.

Needless to say that the two kids were filled to the brim with excitement at the prospect of going to the school they had heard so much about. Though they couldn't go to the school just yet, going to Diagon Alley was the first step in that direction and they wanted to take that step as soon as possible. That was why Harry didn't let the fact that his parents weren't there with him today bother him, because if he was going, to be honest, he couldn't bear to wait a day longer. He would take what he got. Besides, uncle Sirius and Aunt Marlene were very cool and wouldn't let him feel down for even a second.

To pass the time Leo had drifted towards where Harry was standing and started discussing his muggle school with him. Him, Fleamont and Lyra went to a muggle school and would continue doing so till they turned ten. That's what their parents had done with Viscenya and Harry. Lily had been adamant in sending Harry to a school before he went to Hogwarts. She couldn't believe that most kids that were raised in Wizarding families had no former schooling before unless they had enough money to hire private tutors. It was no wonder that most Pureblood kids were brats; they had never learnt how to coexist with others in the first place! Following Lily's example, Marlene sent Viscenya to school too. 

The fireplace whooshed suddenly and brilliant green flames erupted, between these green flames stood the figures of Sirius and Marlene Black. They both took a calculated step forward onto the mat that had been laid out in front of the fireplace and half-heartedly brushed the soot off of their robes; they were going to get dirty again anyway.

Sirius looked up the kids who had all drifted to closer to each other and stood in the middle of the living room. His swept over each of the kids and checked if they had all dressed up or not.

“Everybody’s ready? Great!”

"Okay then, I'll go first so that I'll know if anyone's lost and then you lot can go one by one, Sirius you'll go at the end," Marlene explained.

"Yes mum," Leo said diligently and received a small smile from his mother in return. He had always been a mummy’s boy. Lyra turned towards her sister and imitated Leo in a manner that was not at all flattering. Viscenya snickered under her breath. 

Just then, Sirius’s head snapped up “Wait! Did everyone go to the bathroom?”

He was met with collective groans of three people and one quiet ‘no’ from Lyra, who rushed inside to her room.

* * *

"Okay so Harry, the first order of business will be to go to Gringotts, we've got to get some money out of your vault. Your parents have given me the key; we'll be in and out like lightning." Sirius said as he held Harry's small hand in his and weaved his way through the crowd in the Alley. There were more people than usual because of the Hogwarts shopping that most had to get done, it also didn't help that almost everyone in the streets stopped to look and stare at Harry, and to occasionally point at his scar in the most non-discreet of ways. His arrival in the Leaky Cauldron had been a preview of what his trip to Diagon Alley would be like. People had practically lined to up to shake his hand. People whom he had never seen before were almost falling at their feet to get a glimpse of him. It wasn’t as if Harry wasn’t used to this kind of behaviour, because he was. Since before he could remember it had always been this way with the public, they’d go crazy over every miniscule thing he ever did. 

These kinds of reactions were part of the reason why his parents didn't make a show of or took him out that often in public. He remembered this one time back when he was just eight when he went to visit his Grandparents house and was spotted near London by a reporter, there had been a whole article dedicated to this excursion by the Wizarding newspaper The Daily Prophet.

While he was a bit angry that he couldn’t go out and do the things that Viscenya, Ron, Neville or most other kids could, he had come to realise as he got older that all of it was done to protect him from the evils that media bore. Besides, he could complain all that he wanted about not being able to visit common places that often, but he couldn’t deny the fact that it was nice to not have reporters stick their noses in his business and ask him if he remembered what Voldemort looked like. (Yes, that _had_ happened once. And his parents had had a good time shutting that reporter up)

Perhaps the only good thing to come out of his harried interactions with everyone at the pub was that he and Viscenya got to meet their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher; Professor Quirinus Quirrel.

The man had a stutter and found it difficult to get through simple sentences, Harry was sure he heard uncle Sirius snort under his breath during the interaction, muttering something about Quirrel, something that Harry was sure wasn’t a very good thing to say for his godfather had yelled out in pain just seconds after, probably because aunt Marlene must’ve punched him lightly in the gut, as she often did whenever her husband forgot that they lived in a society.

Sirius and Harry had quickly made their way towards the bank after the crowd had settled somewhat. They had left behind Viscenya with her mother and siblings at the Pub while they sorted out the money from the bank. After that, they were to rendezvous at Florean Fortescue’s and to set off to the different shops to get their supplies.

* * *

The trip to the Wizarding bank had been... interesting. Since he had never before gone to the bank, the Goblins had made him very nervous, it was a good thing that uncle Sirius was there because Harry knew that if it had been just him, he wouldn't have had the courage to get a single word out let alone carry out an entire conversation.

But all of that gratitude had vanished the minute the cart ride into the deep tunnels of the bank had started. Why hadn't anyone told him how awful it would be? While he wasn't sick enough to immediately vomit, he really could have done with a fair warning about the ride. Uncle Sirius had been on enough rides to not let the motion sickness get to him, so once they had arrived at the vault he had looked barely any different. The only thing that had lifted his spirits was the fact that uncle Sirius had told him that Viscenya had vomited after her first venture into the bank.

They had taken the appropriate amount of Galleons, Sickles and Knuts from the vault and stored it in a pouch provided by the Goblin in charge of their transaction. The cart ride back to the main section of the bank was slightly less nauseating.

They were now making their way down the marble steps of the bank, on the last step, Harry saw in his periphery a large figure wrapped in thick cloaks move past him. He didn't stop but he did crane his head backwards to try to see who it was. The person was easily the biggest person he had ever seen! His hair was a scraggly mess, full of knots and wild locks and it looked as if he hadn’t run a comb through it in a hundred years.

Harry tugged at uncle Sirius’s arm to call for his attention.

“Hey, did you see that man who went past us?” he asked still looking back, trying to get a glimpse of the man’s face.

‘Who?’ Sirius asked looking around, scanning the crowd for anything that stood out.

Harry motioned with his head to the man they had left behind. The man in question was almost inside the bank now, so it was a good thing that Harry had pointed him out early.

Sirius looked back at the figure in confusion for a moment before a flash of recognition crossed his face. He smiled.

“Oh- Oh that’s Hagrid, he works at Hogwarts; you've met him." He said as he strode forward.

Harry jogged his memory but he came up short, he couldn’t remember him at all, he opened his mouth to point that out when he was cut short by Sirius, “Ah well, you won’t remember him. You were very young at that point. He’d come by to visit us, we know him from school.”

“You went to school with him?” Harry asked incredulously, not being able to process how his parents had gone to school with a guy like that and failed to mention it to him.

Sirius barked out a laugh and shook his head, “No, Merlin no! He’s the keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts. He spent almost half his time trying to keep us from going inside the forest. Claimed that we were a nuisance, but he liked us enough to invite us over for the occasional tea.”

Harry nodded his head in understanding.

"He'll probably be the one to fetch the first years from the platforms," Sirius said after a while.

They were making their way towards the ice-cream parlour, and now Harry could make out Viscenya and subsequently the rest of the family in the distance.

His best friend seemed to be running around trying to catch Lyra, while Leo sat in his seat perusing the menu. Aunt Marlene was by the counter; Harry assumed that she was placing orders.

It seemed as if they hadn’t noticed the two figures approaching them, because when Harry came into their line of sight, Viscenya let out an audible gasp and ran towards them, completely forgetting about her game of tag with her sister.

“DAD!” she yelled as she ran into her father, burrowing her face into his cloak covered stomach and wrapping her arms around his waist. The people turned around to look at them but quickly lost interest.

Sirius had to abruptly let go of Harry’s hand to balance himself and his daughter so that they both didn’t fall. He chuckled in amusement as Viscenya gripped his waist tighter, not wanting to end the embrace, he ran his hand over her hair and asked, “Missed me that much pup?”

Viscenya didn’t end the hug but nodded her head against him anyway; this caused her father to chuckle harder.

Marlene came up from behind her daughter, an ice-cream cup in her hand, “Don’t flatter yourself,” she said to her husband, “She just finished the sundae with the five different kinds of ice-cream flavours.”

“You mean to say she finished the ‘Butter-Liquor-Pumpernickel-Treacle- Chocolate Frog- alicious Sundae’ which combines the flavours of Butterbeer, Liquorice wands, pumpernickel bread, treacle tarts and chocolate frogs in one - _all_ by herself?” asked Harry incredulously in one breath, looking at his best friend in equal parts shock and awe.

Marlene looked at him a bit weirdly for his downright creepy knowledge of the sundae, but then brushed it off and simply said, “Yeah she did.”

"She's living my dream life," Harry whispered reverently.

Marlene heard this and said, “She’s also going through a sugar rush, so good luck trying to get her to calm down for when she goes to Madam Malkin’s.”

Harry grinned; he was going to the time of his life today.

* * *

They went to the Eyelop’s Owl Emporium and Menagerie first; Sirius and Marlene figured that at least one of the kids would need an owl if not both of them if they wanted to keep up to date with their families. Leo and Lyra for once in their life were not bickering with each other and were instead observing the animals and birds inside the cages with great interest. Their parents had gone to buy their books and had sent the kids out on their own, trusting them enough to not make a mess of things and to reach a decision on which owl they wanted. Viscenya and Harry were having a great time making that decision. Well, it was mostly just Harry, who seemed content on looking after Viscenya walk around the place animatedly; her sugar high not quite subdued yet. 

Viscenya was facing an owl cage which held a large tawny owl with piercing hazel eyes. It was hooting and cocking its head, trying to decipher what she was doing.

Just Harry entered her line of sight she waved her hand and called him over. When he took his time doing that, the urgency in her actions showed and Harry increased his pace.

Viscenya whispered loudly, “Harry! Harry, can you talk to owls?”

Harry desperately tried to stop a smile from overcoming his face “Umm, no I can’t.” A laugh escaped for a brief second but he reined it down and gave Viscenya his most serious expression “Why did you think that I could?”

She shrugged her shoulders and explained, “Yeah well you know, you can already talk to snakes maybe you could talk to owls too.”

"Can't argue with that logic," Harry said seriously.

Viscenya nodded her head before it snapped up and her eyes met his. Something flashed in her eyes and having spent years being on the receiving end of that look Harry knew what it meant.

“I’m going to try talking to it.”

Viscenya looked very determined, yet she was shifting around from one foot to another. Harry noticed that. "You sure? You seem pretty nervous." He said as he motioned with his head towards her feet, which could not stand still and gave off the impression that she was not that willing to embark on what she wanted to do.

Viscenya shook her head rapidly, “No, no, no this is nothing. My shoes don’t fit that well, I guess that's why I had a problem with them this morning. Shoes _are_ tricky, aren't they? Did you know that when I was a kid, well I’m _still_ a kid, but when I used to be younger than I am now I thought that clothes and shoes just naturally shrunk when people grew up crazy right? Merlin, I was so dumb back then. Anyway, my point is I'm going to talk to the owl." She said all of this very quickly.

Harry nodded along solemnly and tried to hide his smile, “You do whatever you want Viscy. Go talk to the owl if that makes you happy.”

“It does make me very happy!” Viscenya said with a smile and faced the owl.

Harry snickered a bit and shook his in amusement when he heard Viscenya let out soft _hoots_ at the owl.

By that time Leo had come up to them and was looking at his sister a bit warily. “Why are you even friends with her?”

Harry just shrugged. He looked back at Viscenya who seemed to be in a staring contest with the owl, and turned towards her brother, “She’s fun sometimes I guess.”

* * *

Viscenya’s sugar high had worn off as was evident from her slurred words and blearily opened eyes. They were returning from Madam Malkin’s and were now heading towards the leaky Cauldron to Floo back home. Sirius and Marlene had agreed that immediately after the emporium, the kids should be sent to Ollivander's. It wouldn’t do well for Viscenya if she was barely able to stand properly enough to get a wand. 

The wand that chose her had Willow wood, Dragon heartstring core, 14 ½ inches with slightly yielding flexibility. That was the one box that she refused to be taken away from her and kept in the magically enhanced bag that her parents were carrying, which in turn carried all of their supplies. Since she had made contact with the wand in the shop, there had been a warm feeling in her chest, which she didn't want to be taken away. Similar was the case with Harry, he had gotten a Holly, Phoenix feather core, 11-inch wand which Mr Ollivander called "nice and supple". He had his wand clutched tightly in his hands and would only be taken away when they were to Floo, in case anything happened to it while they were transported back to their home. He had his wand close to him for two reasons, one was obviously because the wand made him feel warm and fuzzy inside. The other was something that was very unlike the first. After the wand had chosen Harry, Mr Ollivander had turned pensive, more so than usual.

He had said that it was “curious” that the wand that chose Harry was the twin of the wand that gave him the scar on his forehead. His wand was twins with that of Voldemort’s. Harry hadn’t had the time to process all of that then, and as he made his way to the Pub he decided that it was probably for the best that he didn’t think about it at all. What good would it do anyway? Besides he was ridiculously tired from the day he had gone through. Don't get him wrong, he had had a lot of fun, and the trip had been pleasant (save for that last bit with Mr Ollivander) but still, it had taken a lot on him. Even though it was just six' o clock in the evening, he couldn't wait to skip dinner and dive straight into his bed.

Even Leo and Lyra, who had just tagged along were sluggish with their movements.

They made their way to the Pub and Floo’d home.

As soon as they were swished into the fireplace of their home, Leo and Lyra went up to their rooms and Viscenya willed her feet to move towards her room.

“‘Arry, you stayin’ for dinner?” she asked blearily.

Harry who was much better than his best-friend shook his head and spoke clearly, “No, I don’t think so. Mum and Dad would be back by now, and I just want to sleep at this point.”

Viscenya who would usually argue that he could camp in her bedroom and stay overnight didn't fight to hold the conversation any longer and simply nodded.

Sirius moved to question Harry on that and quite possibly argue that Harry but he saw Marlene shake her head no. And he understood that no matter how comfortable Harry was at his home, the boy would prefer to go back to his after a hectic like this. So he just summoned a glass of water and some biscuits from the kitchen, to offer to Harry as refreshment, which the boy gladly took. He gave parting hugs to his godparents before he stepped into the fire and got whisked away to the Manor.

* * *

When Harry reached his house, he was expecting to see his parents waiting for him, if not them then at least one of the house-elves wanting to take his coat and offering something to eat.

What he was not expecting was to see a snowy white owl in a cage, which was kept on a table by the side. As he moved towards the bird, two figures suddenly appeared beside him with a _pop_.

“SURPRISE!” his parents called out together.

Harry jumped about a foot in the air, as the tiredness from the trip faded away quickly.

“What is going on?” he asked as he looked from his parents to the bird, trying to decipher the connection.

Lily put an arm around his shoulder “We weren’t there for you today-,”

"- even though we wished we could have been," James said as he slung an arm around his shoulder from the other side.

“And we’ll regret that, forever and ever!” Lily said dramatically.

“- But we thought that we’d regret it less if we bought you something that you could remember us by when you leave us for some _stupid_ school!” James said with mock annoyance.

“So we bought you this magnificent creature that hopefully reminds you of your equally magnificent mother-,” she said with a flourish.

“- And of your equally _wise_ father!” James said. Harry’s smile increased with that.

“-And of course of your equally sweet sister,” Lily said.

"-And of your brother, who doesn't share any qualities with the owl but someone who'll miss you the most.” James finished lamely.

They waited with bated breath for Harry’s reaction.

“So you tried to buy my love?” he asked bluntly.

James opened and shut his mouth repeatedly, trying to explain himself, when Harry burst out laughing.

“I’m kidding, I’m _kidding!_ I love this, I _love_ this! I don't care if you didn't come with me today, I don't. All I want is to show off the stuff that bought today and tell you what happened. By the way, did you know Viscenya tried to eat the five flavour sundae all by herself and _succeeded_? It was crazy! Merlin! I have _so_ much to tell you, I can’t wait.” Harry said excitedly.

James looked at his wife and then back at his son, “Well, what are you waiting for Lilyflower? Get the popcorn, and I’ll call the children, its storytime." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, how was it? 
> 
> Let me know which part you like best if any :)
> 
> Also, pay attention to the wand that Viscenya got. I spent a lot of time researching for that, and if you look into it, I think you'll find some insight into what her storyline will be ;)
> 
> Happy Pride everyone!! It sucks that I can't go to a parade this Pride because of COVID. The other times it's because I haven't come out to my parents yet (*lol*helpme*lol*)
> 
> Anyway, I hope you all stay safe and prosper in whatever way you can:))  
> Also, don't eat as much sugar as Viscenya did, it's probably bad for your health. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, comments and kudos are love:)))


	10. The train ride and after

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the 1st Of September, you know what that means!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I need to address a lot of things in this note- 
> 
> 1\. I decided to cross-post this story on Ff.net and a user there told me that the title that I have used for this story doesn't exactly mean what I thought it did. The appropriate title would be 'Laeta Mecum'. Now, the thing is, I'm sort of attached to the current title, BUT... if you guys think that I should change it, then I most definitely will. If I don't get a definite response, I'll take the middle ground. Anyway, let me know!
> 
> 2\. There might be a possibility that many of you may not agree with or may not like what I've decided to do in this chapter. That's your opinion, but please respect the fact that this is my story and that I have thought this out. (It's not as serious as I'm making it out to be, I have a flair for the dramatics)
> 
> 3\. Also, I know that in the chapter that we first meet Viscenya in, it's her 10th birthday. I went back and changed that to 11th because I made an oopsie. I thought that Hogwarts would accept students who aren't eleven but will turn the age in just a couple days time (as was the case with Viscenya). But then just to soothe my anxiety I checked the internet and found that that isn't the case. Hermione's birthday falls on the 18th of September and she was 11 when she started Hogwarts.   
> So to clarify, Viscenya is eleven right now, not ten. She will turn 12 on September 22. 
> 
> 4\. I don't think there's anything else really, onto the usual beginning notes- I'm really glad for all the kudos and comments, and for the fact that you guys enjoy this story! It melts my heart :)) Thank you for reading

* * *

**_4 th August 1991, the Daily Prophet_ **

‘ ** _JUSTICE SERVED AT LAST: MASS MURDERER PETER PETTIGREW SENTENCED TO AZKABAN_**

_In the trial conducted before the entire Wizengamot on the 3 rd of August, Peter Pettigrew the mass murderer who had been on the run for ten years was finally convicted and sentenced life imprisonment in Azkaban prison. His out-of-the-blue sighting at Gringotts bank on 31st July prompted the Auror forces to make a speedy arrest and finally bring the man behind bars. In the trial, his earlier unclear intentions of going to the bank were revealed. By his admission, Pettigrew went on record and said that his purpose was to steal the contents of the high-security vault 713. When asked what was so special about the vault a Gringotts spoke goblin said, “We’re not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out of it if you know what’s good for you.” Upon further investigation, it was found that the vault had been emptied the very same day. See full article on pg3.’_

* * *

**_September 1 st 1991,_ **

**_King’s Cross Station_ **

* * *

“I expect that you’ll find Ron on the train,” Marlene said with her head buried in her daughter’s hair and her arms around the girl.

“I have to be on the train first.” was Viscenya’s muffled reply.

Marlene nodded but didn’t let go of her daughter anyway.

A minute passed, “Mum, I have to go at some point you know that right?”

Marlene sighed heavily and finally released her daughter from her soft embrace, “yeah, yeah… I know.”

She ran a hand over Viscenya’s intricately braided hair that she knew wouldn’t stay intact for a long time, what with her daughter being the person she was. Nevertheless, Viscenya tried to bat her mother’s hands away so that they couldn’t mess up the design.

Marlene clicked her tongue, “Stop acting like your father.”

“I thought you loved him,” Viscenya said drily as she tried to raise a single eyebrow (she wasn’t successful and ended up looking confused)

“Of course I love him, doesn’t mean I want another ‘him’ running around the house, Merlin knows I can only handle one,” she explained, “Besides, you look an awful lot like him and that’s enough.” She said softly, again looking as if she was going to bring her daughter into a hug.

“Mum, can you not be so mushy?” Lyra asked from her seat on Viscenya’s trunk.

Marlene glared half-heartedly at her daughter and turned her attention back to the eleven-year-old. “Take care, and punch sexist shits who think they can boss you around.”

Viscenya nodded her head diligently, although after a moment of contemplation she said, “Actually, I’d rather jinx them from afar, gives you the satisfaction of them looking around like idiots.”

Marlene raised her eyebrows at that strategy. Her daughter was thinking ahead.

Out of nowhere James Potter arrived behind them and said, “See? I told you, your daughter’s a Slytherin!” and promptly ran away to his wife.

“Oh, for the love of M-,” Marlene began to say but an announcement was made which advised everyone to get on board, so she let it slide... for now.

* * *

After a bone-crushing hug from her father, a slightly tearful goodbye from her brother, promises to write to her sister and advice on keeping safe and studying from Aunt Lily, Viscenya was finally making her way through the narrow passages of the train, her trunk in one hand and the cage that held her owl in another. Even though Viscenya had been slightly delirious when she had gone to the Emporium, she didn’t regret the choice she had made. The owl that she had wanted to talk to was the one she brought home the day after her trip to Diagon Alley. And she had given him the best name ever; Chewie.

Aunt Lily and Uncle Remus got the reference and appreciated it. Harry got the reference and he just laughed.

To be fair, her owl didn’t really look like the Wookie but the slightly similar shade of his feathers made Viscenya think about the creature, and that was inspiration enough for a name. Harry had named his owl after some lady in the History of Magic book that they had been assigned. Viscenya was surprised that he had started reading up on the syllabus already. 

As she made her way down the coach, she could feel curious eyes on her. She knew that she’d have to deal with this sooner or later; it was inevitable that kids would want to know about what had happened at the Trial. The daily prophet had covered the story for a full week even after the trial had finished and Pettigrew was sent to jail. The journalists being the nosy gits that they were had bombarded everyone and anyone who knew Pettigrew from before, with questions. This involved her parents, uncle Remus and of course aunt Lilly and Uncle James. Besides, her father and uncle worked as Aurors, so they _had_ to be involved in the case regardless of their previous relations with the man.

Many kids her age had no idea of what the War was actually like, so for them the rehashing of an old case and such a high profile one at that seemed very exciting. And the children being the idiots that they were would not bother at all to tread the topic lightly.

A jolt ran through the train and Viscenya knew that they had started their journey. She had wanted to find a seat before the train started moving so that she could wave at her parents from the window side, but that no longer seemed like a doable option. A full five minutes of tugging her trunk across the coaches finally led her to the compartment that Harry was sitting in. Surprisingly there was only Ron with him.

When she knocked at the door, Harry’s eyes snapped up and rushed to open the door for her. All three of them managed to fit her trunk in the seats below and Chewie’s cage was kept alongside Hedwig’s.

“What took you so long? I’ve been waiting here for _ages_.” Harry said after they had settled down.

“I had to go through the entire bloody train looking for you that’s why.” She snapped, “Why didn’t you tell me where’d you be?”

“Because he didn’t know it himself, he was wandering around when I found him and led him to this one.” Put in Ron as he picked at the wrappings of his bulky sandwich absentmindedly.

That didn’t ease Viscenya’s annoyance, but she let it go, it wouldn’t be right for her to let something as simple as that ruin her mood.

“How come no one’s asked you for an autograph yet?” she asked a while later and smirked when Harry groaned. “A couple have, not all though. Don’t jinx it.”

Viscenya and Ron snickered under their breath.

It didn’t take them long to start talking Quidditch, all three of them were sad that first years weren’t allowed to play for the teams or even allowed a broom. While Harry and Ron argued that no matter what age, they’d be able to handle the pressure of a proper game of Quidditch, Viscenya inwardly thought that it was probably for the best that they had set that rule. No matter how good everyone said she was at the sport, she could do well without getting her head bludgeoned to death by a nasty bludger. Of course, she didn’t voice this thought out loud. She was a Gryffindor- well, she wasn’t one _yet_ , but it was only a matter of time before the Sorting Hat shouted it loud for everyone to hear- and _Gryffindors_ didn’t get scared over silly things like bludgers. Besides, house pride or not, Harry and Ron would tease her endlessly and she couldn’t give them that opportunity. So she too spoke in righteous anger about how unfair it all was.

* * *

Throughout the rest of the train ride, people had flitted in and out of their carriage. Neville had come by to ask if they had seen his toad, a couple of children their age and those older to them had come by to see what Harry looked like and to get autographs, which Harry promptly refused. Another girl their age came by but she wasn’t interested in autographs, she was helping Neville look for his toad (although she did flush heavily when she found out she had spoken to Harry Potter). Susan Bones had been kind enough to drop off some of the cookies that her mum had made and had introduced them to another first year that she had made friends with; Hannah Abbot.

Oh, and of course Draco _sodding_ Malfoy had also stopped by. With his swagger on and hair gelled back, looking every bit of the spoilt little brat that he was. In his visit to the compartment which lasted just five minutes, he had managed to make Viscenya, Harry and Ron very angry, quite effortlessly. His insults to Harry and Viscenya didn’t affect them much, because they were the same things that he hit at during all of their other conversations, but since it was his first proper meeting with Ron, he had had his fun coming up with things.

But the brief meeting had ended on a good note, with Draco Malfoy and his goons running off from the compartment with smoke billowing from their robes; courtesy of the Zonko product that Viscenya had wanted to try desperately, but couldn’t find the right person to act as a guinea pig.

Surprisingly nobody had brought the trial up, except for Ron who was curious about all the media attention that it had gotten. Seemed as if nobody was as smart Viscenya gave them credit for.

For now, the trio was making their way towards the castle on boats across the Great Lake. All the children in their year had _oohed_ and _aahed_ at the first glimpse of the castle, Viscenya being one of them. From what she had heard of the castle she felt that the reality exceeded her expectations by far. She was sitting on the boat with Harry, Ron and the girl from before; whose name she found out was Hermione Granger. She tore her gaze from the castle for a brief second to look at the people around her. As expected, they all wore similar expressions of awe on their faces, even Malfoy who could usually be found scowling at something or the other, was for once sporting a small smile full of wonder. 

She shifted a bit so that she could look at the passengers of her boat and she immediately sought Harry. The boy was already looking at her, a giddy smile on his lips lighting up his entire face even in the faint moonlight. He motioned with his head towards the castle that was slowly becoming bigger as they neared it and shot a wink at Viscenya, the girl laughed and looked away; the tips of her ears growing warm.

* * *

“What do you think we have to do for the sorting?” asked Ron worriedly, rubbing at the dirt on his nose like a madman; McGonagall had told the kids to look their best for the feast with a pointed look at the redhead and he had not stopped worrying since.

“Well, we’ll have to battle some creature, that’s for sure!” said Viscenya earnestly and shared a small smile with Harry immediately after.

Hermione Granger must’ve heard her because the dark-skinned girl immediately started mumbling all the spells that she had memorized from the books under her breath.

Ron reluctantly agreed with what the girl had said, “Yeah… Makes sense, Fred and George told me that we’ll have to battle a Troll. I think they change the creature every year. I hope we get something easy, like… pixies or… or gnomes! Oh god, anything but Trolls.”

“Yeah, I _really_ hope we don’t have to battle Trolls,” Harry muttered sarcastically as he tried to fix his crooked tie, he had tried to mat down his hair a bit but that was a lost cause, so he went on to something else.

The reason why all the first years were hyperventilating outside the doors to the Great Hall was that they were scared beyond their wits about the Sorting. Not just muggle-borns, who didn’t have any extra knowledge about the Wizarding world save for the fact that they knew of its existence, certain kids who were raised in magical families were at a loss as well. Ron Weasley was a prime example. Despite being raised in a family of nine, out of which seven had gone to Hogwarts, the boy had no idea about what he had to do to prove his worth in front of the school. This fact was milked for all its worth by Viscenya and (of course) by extension Harry. These two were one of the few children who knew that there was nothing to worry about, for there was no need to prove themselves at all! The sorting hat would be placed on their heads and the magical article would declare to all of Hogwarts the house that they’d belong to.

While their parents hadn’t told them what would happen, Viscenya knew better than to rely on what they said if they ever broke their silence on the matter at all. Despite being just an eleven year old, she had enough sense to go to the most responsible adult around; uncle Remus. While Viscenya at times felt that her uncle got a bit too uptight, she appreciated that fact deeply when all the actual adults around her acted _her_ age. Without much prodding, uncle Remus had patiently explained the entire process to her, and she had relayed this information onto Harry.

But it was only Harry whom she had told. She wasn’t about to miss out on the fun that she was having, seeing Ron and countless others nervous beyond belief, ha! This was hilarious.

Suddenly everybody went silent, Viscenya looked up and saw that the Professor from before, Professor McGonagall, had come back. The lady discreetly ran her gaze through the crowd of children, checking to see if everyone was in order, once she was satisfied, she called out, “Form a line, and follow me”

All the children straightened up and assembled themselves into lines. The giant oak doors to the Great Hall swung open.

Viscenya gasped loudly; the Great Hall did justice to its name. With over a thousand candles lighting up the room and the intricate architecture of it all, the hall looked well and truly ‘great’. She felt a hand tug at her robe sleeve and looked to her side; it was Harry, pointing discreetly at the ceiling. Viscenya looked up and gasped again, it was the night sky! She had heard about the infamous enchanted ceiling of the great hall, but had thought it to be something that her parents had made up; regardless she had hoped that it was real. But what she had imagined and what she was seeing, were two completely different things. There was not a cloud in sight, just the stars gleaming brightly down onto the children, flooding the hall with light and adding on to the aesthetic of it all. She’d have a hard time eating dinner, for she was sure that she would at some point or the other look up to the ceiling and try to locate a constellation or two.

In the background, she heard Hermione Granger explain the phenomenon to a fellow first year and she fought hard to not roll her eyes. The bushy-haired girl was a Remus Lupin in the making.

She saw Professor McGonagall go up the small stairs and stand beside a stool, atop of which sat a ratty old hat, a-ha! So that was _the_ Sorting hat.

Suddenly, one of the seams in the hat opened up as if it was a mouth, many of the first years gasped, and the hat started singing-

‘ _Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_ _  
_ _But don't judge on what you see,_ _  
_ _I'll eat myself if you can find_ _  
_ _A smarter hat than me._ _’_

Viscenya chuckled at that and looked around the children in the hall; those who were in the second year or above. She had expected them to be just as enthralled in the song as the first years were, but to her surprise (not really) she saw that many of the older children were either craning their necks or looking in the general direction of the first-year crowd, to look at Harry. She was sure she even saw a couple of people point at him. The only person who was diligently looking on towards the hat and listening to its song was Perfect, and now prefect, Percy Weasley. Yeah... of course, he was the only one, well him and the first years anyway.

She shook her head and shifted her attention back to the song.

_  
  
_ _‘_ _You might belong in Gryffindor,_ _  
_ _Where dwell the brave at heart,_ _  
_ _their daring, nerve and chivalry_ _  
_ _Set Gryffindors apart;_ _’_

Viscenya and Harry both looked at each other, wearing unique grins of their own. Yep, Gryffindor was the best.

_  
_ _‘_ _You might belong in Hufflepuff,_ _  
_ _Where they are just and loyal,_ _  
_ _Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_ _  
_ _And unafraid of toil;_ _  
_ _Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_ _  
_ _If you've a ready mind,_ _  
_ _Where those of wit and learning,_ _  
_ _Will always find their kind;_ _  
_ _Or perhaps in Slytherin_ _  
_ _You'll make your real friends,_ _  
_ _Those cunning folk use any means_ _  
_ _To achieve their ends._ _’_

At that Viscenya shot a nasty glare at Draco Malfoy who was looking smug and proud. _Slimy git,_ she thought.

_  
_ _‘_ _So put me on! Don't be afraid!_ _  
_ _And don't get in a flap!_ _  
_ _You're in safe hands (though I have none)_ _  
_ _for I'm a Thinking Cap!_ _’_

Even if most of the Great Hall had not been paying attention to the song, they burst out in applause regardless. The loudest of it coming from Ron who was the happiest on realising that he didn’t have to do anything, although he did turn around and glare at Viscenya half-heartedly, the girl pretended to not have seen him.

Once the applause died down, Professor McGonagall unrolled a sheet of parchment paper and said, “Now, when I call your name, you will put on the hat and the sit on the stool to be sorted.” The first person to be called forth was, “Abbot, Hannah!”

A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, she sat down on the stool and placed the hat over her head; her eyes completely covered by its rim. A moment’s pause-

“HUFFLEPUFF!” shouted the hat.

The table on the right cheered and clapped, as Hannah went on and sat down on the table, the ghost of the Fat Friar waved merrily at her.

Susan Bones was second and she too was sorted into Hufflepuff. Viscenya clapped and cheered for all of them, but a bit of nervous fear wriggled in her stomach unpleasantly. They had already shifted on to the Bs; her name wouldn’t be too far.

“Boot, Terry” Professor McGonagall called out, and the boy was sent to house Ravenclaw. The table second on the left clapped loudly and several of his housemates stood up to shake Terry’s hands.

“Black, Viscenya!”

Viscenya turned to look at Harry; bewildered. The boy smiled that stupid smile of his and nodded encouragingly. She walked up the short steps to the stool, lifted the hat, placed it on her head and sat down.

With her view effectively blocked by the oversized hat, she found no use in keeping her eyes open. She closed them and waited for it, she waited for the hat to shout it out loud for everyone to hear, “ _Gryffindor!”-_

‘ _So you want to be in Gryffindor eh?’_ a gravelly voice asked in her head.

A flood of memories bombarded Viscenya’s train of thought; memories of all the times people had compared her to her father, of all the times her father had said with conviction that she’d make a great Gryffindor, of that one time on her eleventh birthday when she and Harry had been discussing this very moment – when she had said with full confidence that she belonged to this house.

‘Well, it’s not the fact that I want to be in Gryffindor, more like the fact that I’m _supposed_ to be in Gryffindor.’ She said simply, really confused why this was a problem, wanting to be something and supposed to be something were essentially the same thing.

‘ _You really think so? There is a major difference between what you’re supposed to be and what you actually are, **young girl.** ’ _ The hat said in a matter-of-fact voice, if not a bit snidely.

Viscenya bristled; the hat was getting on her nerves. But she knew better than to act rashly at this point. She knew better than to pick fights with an entity that would, in all probability, make one of the most important decisions in her life. She forced herself to cool down and in the sweetest voice that she could achieve, she asked the hat, ‘Well what do you say, where _should_ I go?’

Instead of hearing a reply in her head, she heard the reply out-loud, “SLYTHERIN!” the hat shouted out to the Great Hall.

There was applause that rose from some part of the hall, but Viscenya Black didn’t register it at all. The hat was lifted from her head and she was met with blinding lights of the thousand candles that hovered over the tables. The warm, inviting glow of the light from before seemed obnoxiously bright and scorching to the girl as she stumbled a bit and made her way down the stairs and towards the Slytherin table. Almost as if she was in a trance, she looked over to where the un-sorted children were and searched the crowd for a mop of black hair. Like before on the boat, she found out that the person with said kind of hair was already looking at her, looking just as (if not more) shocked. She saw Ron reach over to him and whisper something in his ear. She saw Harry look conflicted as he moved his gaze from Viscenya to Ron repeatedly.

She must’ve reached the Slytherin table in her trance, for her knees buckled a bit as they were met with the wooden bench abruptly. A hand reached out and steadied her and pulled her down to take a seat. Her gaze didn’t leave the slowly diminishing group of yet to be sorted first-years. She let her eyes wander a bit and saw the smirking face of Draco Malfoy, looking smug as he always did.

She averted her gaze down to her lap immediately. Eyes brimming with tears; but she blinked them back. It must have been a mistake. That was it. Just because the hat was magical it didn’t mean that it was infallible. Something must have gone wrong. In hindsight she had been a bit rude to the hat, she was sure that if the hat had a _proper_ conversation, one that wasn’t hurried like this one, and then he’d know that she was a good person. She was nice! She helped Neville with Quidditch, sometimes she showed Leo how properly throw a Quaffle. She liked muggles for Merlin’s sake! She liked Star Wars! She liked muggle songs! She even liked that movie with the ghosts, the one that her father wasn’t fond of, and he was the biggest pro- muggle rights person she had met in her entire life! Her parents were Gryffindors! They had said she was supposed to be in Gryffindor. They wouldn’t have lied to her, not about this.

 _Uncle James always said that you were a closeted Slytherin though, didn’t he?_ A snide voice, similar to that of the hat reminded her.

She shook her head as if the action would clear away the horrid thought. A finger poked her on the right side and she yelped. She was met with the sight of a dark-skinned girl who looked old enough to be a third-year. The girl looked coolly at her and asked, “Okay there Black?”

Viscenya schooled her features the best she could, she couldn’t let the gits find out that she was close to bawling her eyes out. She cleared her throat and nodded, sucked in a deep breath and said, “Yeah, Yeah I’m fine.” After a minute of assessment, the girl extended her hand towards Viscenya and introduced herself, “Leah Thompson”

Viscenya reached her arm out and shook it, “Viscenya Black,” once the handshake broke, she added, “You’re the first person to talk to me here.”

Leah raised an eyebrow, “I know you didn’t notice it, but a lot of people wanted to talk to you, you’re the first Slytherin to be sorted this year. Also, you’re old blood; of course, everyone would salivate at a chance to be chums with you.” She explained casually, moving her eyes over to the sorting ceremony. Millicent Bulstrode was sitting on the stool now with the hat over her head, a moment later the hat shouted “SLYTHERIN!” and the table again broke into applause, of course, it wasn’t the ‘rowdy’ or ‘obnoxious’ applause of the other Houses, this was refined.

Leah too clapped along with them till the girl reached the table. Once she did, the older students waited for her to settle herself and then, with the utmost grace extended their hands towards her. Viscenya hadn’t clapped, but she nodded at the fellow first-year all the same. From beside her, Leah patted her shoulder and called for her attention, “Is there a reason why you looked close to crying before?” she asked, not looking a single bit concerned.

Viscenya immediately defended herself, “I wasn’t about to cry! What do you think I am six?” she exclaimed hotly, while she kept half her attention focused on the sound of Professor McGonagall’s summons, not wanting to miss Harry’s sorting.

Leah once again cocked her eyebrow, this time looking amused, “That was a commendable attempt, but you’re going to have to try harder if you want to convince people. Don’t worry, seven years here, we’ll teach you the stuff,” Viscenya inwardly groaned, _seven years ugh! I have **got** to get out, _she thought. “But tell me really, why were you crying?” Leah asked again persistently.

Viscenya shrugged, craning her neck to look at the ceremony once again. 

“Alright then, keep your secrets.” Leah acquiesced with a small smile playing on her lips.

* * *

She was in the same house as Draco Malfoy, she was in the same house as Pug- face-Parkinson, she was in the same house as Crabbe and Goyle and she was in the same house as Blaise Zabini- although to be fair, she didn’t have anything against him- regardless this was bad. She was supposed to be in Gryffindor! She was supposed to be with Harry and Ron and Neville and Fred and George! Even Hufflepuff would have been better than this.

The entire hall had gone quiet when Harry’s name had been called, Viscenya played the memory of the hat yelling out “GRYFFINDOR!” and Harry looking over at her for a brief second before joining the Gryffindor table, over and over again. Wallowing in self-pity was one of her many talents.

For now, the feast had started. Dumbledore had given the speech, said something about some floor and then the food had appeared. Viscenya hadn’t paid any attention to stuff that was going around her, her mind was too preoccupied with all the worrying that she had been doing ever since she had been sorted. She was definitely going to get her house changed, she’d talk to Professor Dumbledore, call her father in if need be. Probably even look up rules and stuff in Hogwarts: A History, to see if there was someone who could overrule the hat’s decision.

“Pass the peas will you Black?” asked a voice from her left, breaking her out of her reverie. She looked up and saw Blaise Zabini look expectantly down at her, he was a bit taller than her. She sighed and passed the large bowl of the green food to the boy, “What kind of psychopath eats peas by choice?” she muttered.

She saw the boy smile briefly as though he had heard her comment, but he didn’t say anything. He proceeded to scoop two spoonfuls of the food onto his plate and Viscenya momentarily forgot about her problems, she had shifted to disgust. As an act of rebellion, she proceeded to load her plate with roast chicken, even though it was more than what she could eat; it was the spirit of the whole thing that mattered. Blaise looked at her with a raised eyebrow, and that ticked her off further- how could everyone do the eyebrow thing but her! – “Got a problem Zabini?” she asked coldly.

He shook his head, “I don’t think I can be friends with you if that is what you eat all the time.”

“Well, you won’t hear me complaining.” The girl said before she shoved a forkful of the chicken in her mouth. 

* * *

The feast had ended, and they had sung the school song. The first years were making their way down to the Dungeons towards the Slytherin Dorms. Viscenya half- dragged her legs as she walked with the group of children that would be in her year. Her legs felt like lead, partly because of the sleepiness, partly because she was dreading going up to the Common Room. From what she had heard, she was sure that the place would have severed heads of House Elves decorating the walls, or that there would be snakes everywhere. Maybe, there’d be cave-like walls leaking water and blood.

To summarise: She had a bad feeling about this. 

They had taken a door on the right side of the Entrance Hall, behind the door there was a set of stone steps that the children descended, this led them to the dungeons.

A bit more of walking- and then the group of children led by the Prefects paused by a stretch of bare, damp stone wall. 

The female prefect turned around in one swift motion and regarded the children, “The Slytherin Dormitories’ security has not been breached for about seven centuries, I won’t have you lot slipping up and breaking that streak.” She said with a steely glint in her eyes, almost automatically all the children straightened up at that, it reminded Viscenya of the effect that Professor McGonagall had on the first years, and she found herself respecting the prefect a bit more, albeit grudgingly.

The Prefect turned around once more and faced the wall, “Lace-wing” she said in a clear voice and a stone door concealed in the stone wall slid open at that.

The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them, and several Slytherins were silhouetted around it in high-backed chairs.

The windows seemed to be tainted green, but a while later Viscenya saw something move past them and she realised that they were under the Black lake.

So far she had not found any skulls, nor were the walls dripping with blood. Didn’t mean she liked it though! She did not like this at all. Nope, she hated how comfortable the chairs looked, she hated how she could imagine herself curling in on them and dosing off to sleep. The Common Room was shit.

The Prefects had allowed the children to look around for a while, but the time was up. “Listen up you lot!” called out prefect Gemma Farley as Viscenya remembered. “The password changes every fortnight, every password change will be up on the notice board.”

“The basic rules you need to follow in this house are quite simple- don’t get caught doing something you shouldn’t be doing if you do get caught: talk your way out of it. The house of Slytherin has for centuries been the pride of Hogwarts, it has shown the world what truly makes a wizard or a witch their best selves, and we won’t have you besmirching that image with your tomfoolery.” The guy prefect said with a pointed look to each child.

“Our head of House Professor Snape will be here in the morning to give you your time-tables and to also brief you on things that you’ll need to keep in mind. Make sure that you get up on time and dress well, tardiness will not be tolerated.” Gemma said as she gave a barely hidden look of disgust to the first year that still had some food on his chin, his name was Crabbe something if Viscenya remembered correctly.

The other prefect picked up where Gemma left off, “For now- Boys, your dorms are down this passage,” he indicated with his hand, “and to the left. And girls, the same to the right. Goodnight.” He said sharply with a simple nod of his head. 

Both the prefects went to their respective dorms without any delay after that. Viscenya, who would normally want to scope the place out, was too tired to do anything but move in the direction of her dorms. On her way she saw Leah Thompson from before, sitting by a table and writing aggressively on a piece of parchment. As if the girl could sense her gaze, Leah snapped her head towards Viscenya and gave her a two-fingered salute. Viscenya let out a small chuckle and paused in her step to salute the girl back.

It was then when something, or rather _somebody_ , bumped into her. “Better watch where you’re going Black,” Sneered the familiar voice of Malfoy junior.

“Considering the fact that it was _you_ who bumped into _me_ , I’d say that I’m fine the way I am,” Viscenya said in a matter-of-fact voice, turning around to face the boy. No matter what emotional turmoil she was going through, she would not let The Brat get the upper-hand.

“Let’s see how long that attitude lasts with Potter not there to back you up eh?” Malfoy commented snidely.

Viscenya barely suppressed a wince at the mention of Harry. Regardless she stared Malfoy down, with the same steely glint she had seen in Gemma’s eyes, hoping that it had the same effect, “Oh it’ll last.” She said, and with a swish of her robes swerved left and entered the girls’ dormitory.

She stormed over to where her trunk was placed, thankfully it was the last bed of the lot; at least she could have some semblance of privacy. After taking out her nightclothes, she went over to where the washrooms were and quickly locked the door, in a frenzy she brushed her teeth and went through her night-time rituals, not wanting to prolong sleep for another moment.

When she returned, her hair was free from the braids she had put them into before and down in natural waves. The other girls were still going through their trunks, unsure of what to say; scared that they might anger the girl further. Even Parkinson, who was practically Malfoy’s girlfriend kept quiet.

When Viscenya had settled down and drawn the curtains shut around her bed she heard the faint voice of one of her year mates, somebody who she hadn’t learnt the name of say, “Goodnight Viscenya,”

Normally Viscenya would have ignored something like this in a stride of her anger, but since she wanted to prove that she was as un-Slytherin as one could be, she wished the unknown girl back, “Good night to you too.” She said softly.

It was only when she was sure that everybody had fallen asleep that she allowed her mind to wander. Yes, it had hurt that Harry hadn’t sought her out after the sorting, but she’d make it better. Yes, first thing in the morning she’d speak to her house in charge, the headmaster if need be and she’d get her house changed. Yeah... she’d get it changed, she didn’t belong in Slytherin. She didn’t. She couldn’t.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooooo.....? 
> 
> Longest chapter yet, was it worth it?   
> There are some elements in this chapter that have deliberately been placed there, let's see how many of you correctly guess it. No pressure :))
> 
> Lmao, I had to go to the second page of Google results to find out the password system of the Slytherin Common Rooms. I didn't get anything there, so I opened up the second book and rifled through the chapter where Harry and Ron go undercover with Malfoy to the Dorms. 
> 
> Please, please, please let me know how you found this chapter, I truly have spent a lot of time on this and I swear to god, I'm ready to drop dead atm. 
> 
> Kudos and Comments are love, keep them coming :))  
> Stay safe fam!


	11. The Day After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius reacts to the sorting, Viscenya tries to figure a way out. Harry tries to talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I missed posting new chapters. 
> 
> thank you for sticking around for so long, I couldn't let you guys off without a single post before New-Years.

* * *

**_1 st September 1991_ **

**_Black Residence_ **

* * *

“ _Slytherin!?”_

“Sirius, _calm down_ -,”

“Don’t!” Sirius snapped as he raised his hand to stop Marlene from finishing her sentence. “Don’t tell me to ‘calm down’, that stinking, ratty-old, _faulty_ , piece of shit hat put _my daughter_ in _Slytherin_?” Sirius breathed out incredulously.

There was a moment’s pause,

Marlene’s quiet but strong voice carried through the room “Don’t ever, speak to me like _that_ again.”

Sirius hung his head in shame, yet his frustration didn’t ebb, his fingers were still clutching on to the letter that Hogwarts had sent him. This was something that the school had started only a few years back; this system of sending a letter to the parents, informing them of the house that their child got sorted into. It was a way to let the parents know officially and a means of children without methods of communication to pass this information on to their families.

He had thought that this was a great idea, he’d get to congratulate his daughter and his letter would be the first thing she’d see at the breakfast table, it would have been perfect. Of course, in this musing, she was sorted into Gryffindor.

His mind felt like a broken record player, ‘ _What went wrong_?’ was the question that he repeated over and over again. He had done all the right things, he had kept her away from the house in Grimmauld Place, he had made sure that she only read stuff about light magic, he had made sure that his daughter was _good_ and she was! She helped her brother, she loved muggle culture and by extension muggles themselves, heck, she was polite to the house-elves over at the Potter’s.

Maybe it’s because she had met with the Malfoy brat a couple of times at parties and such, yeah that must have been it. He’d probably filled her head with rubbish. But… Viscenya knew better than that right?

It didn’t matter, he’d sort it out. He would go over to Hogwarts, the time be damned, and shake sense into the Headmaster and ask him to redo the sorting. It had to have been a mistake. 

He moved to leave his bedroom when a hand stopped him in his tracks, he moved his gaze to the said hand and saw that Marlene was clutching onto his shoulder with a vice-like grip. “Where are you going?” she asked calmly, the anger from his behaviour before still not completely gone.

“To have a chat with Dumbledore, this has to be a mistake!”

He moved past her and as he reached the door, Marlene said loudly, “Do you remember your Sorting?”

That stopped him.

He turned around and fixed with a steely look, “Of course I do, one of the best moments of my life.” He said, struggling to keep the snark out of his voice, lest his wife got angrier.

“Care to explain what happened after, with your parents?”Marlene prodded further with faux concern.

“Well, they wrote a letter to Dumbledore, tried to pull rank to get me sorted in Slytherin. Came to Hogwarts when they felt that they could scare the hat into putting me in the ‘right house’, didn’t succeed and made life hell for me for as long as I lived under their roof after that.” Sirius answered simply, looking a bit confused as to why Marlene had asked him to go over that experience.

Marlene exhaled sharply through her nose and stepped closer to her husband, “And don’t you see how that situation may be similar to _this_ one?” she asked; the annoyance evident in her tone.

Realisation dawned on Sirius’s face, and Marlene thought that the battle was won. She was wrong.

“If you think that you can compare the two situations, then you are wrong.”

“Really, how so? They seem quite similar to me.” Marlene said with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Well, they’re not!” Sirius snapped.

“Go ahead, explain why,” Marlene said calmly.

Sirius simply stared at her.

“Okay maybe they’re _kind_ of similar- but still!” he defended himself as he saw a smirk overtake Marlene’s features. “Don’t turn me into one of the bad guys! We both know our daughter; we know that she’s better than _Slytherin._ ”

Marlene sighed heavily. “Merlin was in Slytherin, you know?” 

“ _Voldemort_ was in Slytherin too,” Sirius responded like a petulant child. 

“Pettigrew was in Gryffindor,” Marlene, dropping the bomb, “He was in Gryffindor, yet he did what he did.”

Sirius breathed heavily through his nose, and his chest heaved slightly. Even after almost ten years, the anger that had risen in him the first time he’d heard of the rat’s betrayal didn’t diminish, yet he wasn’t going to let the case of one bad apple justify Marlene’s argument.

“He was an exception.” Sirius snapped.

“Then why can’t our daughter be?” Marlene challenged, “Why does she not get to be her own person? Why is it that just because she got sorted into a house- she’s a completely different entity now? Pettigrew would have turned bad no matter where he was sorted, similarly, Viscenya will turn out good even if she’s in Slytherin.”

When Sirius didn’t say anything, Marlene continued-

“We raised her to be kind; we raised her to know right from wrong. Just because she’s there with those kids, or that she’s in Slytherin will not change that,” she said in a softer tone than before.

“You’re one to say, you hated those snakes just as much as I did in school!” Sirius accused, but the words carried little bite to them.

“First of all, I was a kid back then, and I’d like to think that I’ve matured over the years.”

Sirius snorted at that, Marlene gave him appointed look but carried on, “Besides back then, you have to admit, the people in Slytherin were a bunch of assholes and you can’t blame me!”

“I _do_ admit that,” said Sirius, “I do, I admit that the kids from Slytherin in our year were grade-A Wankers, and that is the reason why I don’t want her with their children! Come on, how can you not see my point?” he pleaded.

Marlene sighed, for what felt like the hundredth time during that conversation, “Honey, the sorting hat knows. I don’t know how or why, but it _knows_. And if it said that our daughter belongs in Slytherin-then she _does_ , there’s no way around that.”

“So you’re saying that she’s _destined_ to be a bad person? Huh, is that what you’re saying?” Sirius asked her incredulously

“No that is not what I’m saying AT ALL!” Marlene yelled out. “Haven’t you heard a word of what I’ve been saying the entire time!? Our daughter is a good person, just because she got sorted into Slytherin it doesn’t mean that she’ll be evil once she dawns the green tie- all it means is that she’s smart, witty and knows how to get things done, and I don’t see ANYTHING WRONG ABOUT THAT!” her eyes blazed with fire, so bright and so hot that even from a distance Sirius felt as though the gaze would burn him to the ground. He felt his expression shift, the anger lines on his face eased as his eyebrow came down from their position by his hairline.

“If I know anything about Viscenya, it’s that she’ll feel worse about this sorting than you do now. She grew up thinking she’d be something that she apparently isn’t meant to be, and I’m pretty sure my darling’s crushed inside.” Marlene said to no one in particular, it was as if she was thinking out loud.

“...well, ‘suppose anyone would be crushed if they got into Slytherin,” mumbled Sirius. Yes, it was in the middle of Marlene’s rant that he had realised how truly similar he seemed to his birth parents. They too had dreams of Sirius growing up to be the perfect Slytherin boy, and as his daughter, Sirius had also taken a complete 180 turn from _that_ direction. 

He may have agreed with Marlene on this but it didn’t mean that he was completely on board with the idea. He was going to be bitter about it, but he wasn’t going to go so far as to challenge the decision. It also didn’t mean that he was suddenly going to wear an ‘I Love Slytherins’ shirt anytime soon. There was only one Slytherin that he loved and that was his daughter, he would keep it that way.

“Best write her a letter right now I guess, that is if we want her to get it by breakfast,” said Marlene with a sigh, while she was all for supporting her daughter there was a part of her that had no idea how to behave and what to say to her that would make her feel comfortable. “Send it via Freddie, she’ll like to see him.” She added as an afterthought.

Had Viscenya been sorted into Gryffindor, everything would have felt natural... but it didn’t mean that this wasn’t nice. It wasn’t natural because they had been living in a bubble. For eleven or so years, they had been living around and with people who were similar to them in thought and action. This was the variation that they needed. She’d adapt, she’d talk to Lily, read up on the house; the good and bad.

She loved her daughter and she’d be damned if a fucking prejudice got in the way.

* * *

**_2 nd September 1991_ **

**_First-year Slytherin Girl’s Dorms,_ **

**_Hogwarts_ **

* * *

“Get up!”

“Shove off.”

“Get up now and I won’t report you to Professor Snape for your foul language.”

“Fuck off now and I won’t hex you for thinking that ‘Shove off’ is _foul language_.”

Pansy gasped dramatically at the curse but was quickly subdued by her friend Daphne.

“Leave her alone Pansy, it’s clear that Black doesn’t care if she loses House points on the very first day. Let her rot in her haven of self-pity, we’ve got classes to attend to.” A different voice called out from behind.

“I’ll make _you_ rot in _your_ haven of self-pity!” Viscenya yelled from behind the drapes across her bed, so really her exclamation didn’t have the effect that it should’ve. Not that it would have had any effect even if had been clear, Viscenya made shitty comebacks in the morning... or, in general.

“Why are you so bitter anyway? Is it because you didn’t get sorted into the same house as your _boyfriend_?” Pansy asked mockingly.

“Harry is not my _boyfriend_ ,” Viscenya mumbled into her pillow, “And I’m bitter, because you have been yelling in my face for the past half-hour, and I can’t listen to a chicken yapping early in the morning... an ugly chicken at that.”

“Why- you little! -” Pansy shrieked and whipped the drapes open. 

She was met with the sight of Viscenya dressed perfectly in her uniform, hair combed through, all neat and clean. Save for the pillow on top of the face, there was not one thing that was out of order.

‘You’re _dressed_?” Pansy asked incredulously, still in shock.

“I’ve been up since the past three hours, got dressed at around 5:30 or something, roamed around for a bit, got bored, so I got back into the bed.”

Of course, Viscenya didn’t just roam around in the morning, she set out to the library first; eager to research on the rules and find loop-holes in the sorting ceremony and the Hat’s decision. However having read the sign on the library, she found out that the library opened up when the school day officially started, i.e. at breakfast. She had been around three hours too early.

She practically used every spell she knew to get the door to open, but alas, she was just an eleven year old, and the spells protecting Hogwarts and all things included in the building were old and far stronger than a simple ‘ _alohomora’._ (If asked, she’d deny it, but she also tried shoving the door open.)

And so like a ghost, she roamed the halls of Hogwarts, she even saw some actual ghosts!

She met Sir Nicholas, and the Bloody Baron, there was no doubt in her mind that she wanted to go to Gryffindor now, the Slytherin ghost was a bore!

But there was only so much exploration one could go on about, early in the morning when she hadn’t even had food, and loathe as she was to admit it, she couldn’t find the kitchens. Besides, she kind of missed her bed.

So she had slipped back into her bed when all the other girls were sleeping. And through the drapes, she had heard the commotion that ensued when all of them tried to get ready. Safe to say, she had been wide awake the entire time Pansy Parkinson had spent trying to wake her up.

And now that Pansy Parkinson knew that, she was livid.

“Listen, Black, I know you’re depressed or whatever but that doesn’t mean that you make someone waste their precious time on you! Ugh!! You’re so frustrating! It’s only been one day and you’re already caused me so much trouble. Wait till I tell Professor Snape about this! You- you...” Pansy struggled to find the insult that would hit _just_ right.

Even Viscenya turned her head around to witness the terrible blow that Pansy was _sure_ to deal her with.

Suddenly, half the dorm was looking at Pansy expectedly, waiting for her to say something that would insight the first ‘girl fight’ of their Hogwarts journey.

Under the pressure, Pansy struggled, even more, her stammer more pronounced, and Viscenya was sure that she had seen a bead of sweat trickle down from her hairline.

“You- you... You- ugh! You little _blood-traitor!_ ”

Everybody around them gasped, and Pansy looked triumphant, albeit a bit nervous, nervous to see if her well-thought insult would have any effect on Viscenya.

Viscenya, in turn, looked bored, “Seriously Parkinson? You’re worse at comebacks than I am.”

* * *

A good thirty minutes after the _riveting_ showdown in the Girls Dorm, the first-year girls, along with some of the older students moved out of the Dorms and headed towards the Great Hall (Pansy and Daphne purposely walking at a distance from Viscenya), throughout the entire journey, the seniors would tell them things about the school, warning them about teachers that they needed to look out for, and certain habits that they needed to let go of if they didn’t want their Head of House hating them.

Of course, all of it didn’t matter to Viscenya. For one, she was sure that the Head of House Professor Snape already hated her. She hadn’t seen a lot of him before or after coming to Hogwarts but in the short meetings that they had had when he would visit Harry’s house, she could tell that he wasn’t particularly _fond_ of her or children in general. For another, it wasn’t as if she was going to stay in this house for long (not if she had any say in the matter anyway).

They soon reached the doors of the Great Hall, and Viscenya had flashbacks of when she was at the same place the night before, of course, in those flashbacks she was happy and genuinely excited about the prospect of studying at Hogwarts.

She was sure that they had entered the hall on time because there weren’t a lot of students in the seats yet. A few were scattered here and there, the majority of the morning risers being from Ravenclaw.

Slytherin was second in number with the almost half of the table filled with students.

Viscenya roamed her eyes over the Gryffindor table and immediately spotted Harry, her eyes widened in shock, partly because she was surprised that Harry had even woken up this early and partly because the boy in question was looking directly at her. When Harry spotted Viscenya looking at him in turn, he immediately dropped his gaze to the plate of food in front of him and started shovelling forkfuls of eggs in his mouth, quiet like Ron who was sitting beside him.

Viscenya wanted so desperately to go and talk to him; she had a great opportunity to do so too, but she was a girl on a mission. She needed to get to the Library as quickly as possible; she’d talk to Harry only when she got good news to talk about. She sat down on the table, next to a girl from her year whose name she hadn’t bothered to remember.

Just as she was about to grab a piece of toast, an owl that she recognised as her father’s, with his piercing amber gaze and tufts of brown feathers, swooped down and perched himself on her shoulder.

Viscenya blanched at the sight of the bird. She’d forgotten that the parents were automatically told about the Sorting of their children. Oh, she was so screwed. She was sure that the bird had brought a letter from her parents. And she was also sure about the contents of that letter. She didn’t even want to open, much less read it. 

Seeing the cover of the envelope, she was relieved to notice that it wasn’t a howler. Nevertheless, she was scared out of her wits. Just wanting the bird to go away, Viscenya carefully untied the letter from around the bird’s leg and offered some bits of toast for the bird to eat.

“Hey Freddie, how are you boy,” she asked in a soft, wavering voice, not wanting to scare the bird.

Freddie, as the owl was called, promptly finished the bits of toast that had been offered to him and nipped Viscenya playfully on the tips of her fingers in response. He didn’t wait long and swiftly took a flight to leave the Hall.

Viscenya looked on forlornly at the bird but drew her attention to the letter.

She was just about to open the letter when she noticed the sudden silence fall on the Slytherin table.

She looked around to see that Professor Snape was at the top of the table distributing the time tables. She also found that during her short meeting with the owl, most of the Slytherin table had filled out.

The Slytherins really were punctual, huh?

When Professor Snape finally reached her end of the table, he was quick with his movements as he flicked his wand and the time table sheets levitated from the stack floating beside him and floated down to the child they were intended for.

Viscenya was impressed at the magic, even when she couldn’t help but feel on edge in the presence of the teacher. Personally, she didn’t have an issue with the man, but because of the number of times she’d heard her father bad-mouth him, and the botched interactions that she had had with the professor, she couldn’t help but feel that she was _supposed_ to be wary around him.

The head of the house didn’t spare any of the children a second glance as he gave them the regular warning of being on time. With a swish of his robes, he had gone back to the Head table, and all the children were left in awkward silence.

Of course, the silence didn’t last for long as children began talking. Most of the purebloods knew each other from before, so conversation flowed easily between them.

Even Viscenya, who didn’t really hang out with these kinds of people often, knew some of the children from Ministry parties and the like.

From the din of chatter, Draco Malfoy’s voice was the loudest as he bragged about his Quidditch skills. Viscenya caught Blaise Zabini’s eyes, the boy who had peas willingly, and he rolled them at another one of Draco’s brags, Viscenya had to bite down a smile.

Viscenya finished her breakfast in record time, and with her time-table and the letter still clutched in her hands, she left the Great Hall. Before leaving through the tall gates though, she looked one last time at Harry, and like before, he was also looking at her. When he saw Viscenya leaving, he moved to get up and approach her but Viscenya ran away before he lost her in the crowds.

* * *

The Library had been a waste of time.

For one, there were no books apart from ‘Hogwarts: a History’ that could give her insight into how the school worked, for another, the aforementioned book made it seem like the Sorting Hat’s decision was absolute.

‘Legend _has it that the Sorting Hat was sewn roughly one thousand years ago and began as a normal hat belonging to Godric Gryffindor_ _. When Gryffindor, along with Salazar Slytherin_ _, Rowena Ravenclaw_ _and Helga Hufflepuff_ _, wondered how they would continue to sort_ _the students when the four were dead, Gryffindor pulled his hat from his head and, along with the other founders, enchanted it with their combined intelligence. All four founders wanted to ensure that students would be sorted into their eponymous houses, which would be selected according to each founder's particular preferences in students._

_The Sorting Hat, now animated, was able to sort and divide the students into the Hogwarts houses_ _and continued to do so for a millennium, passed down to each new Headmaster or Headmistress_ _of the school. When not in use, it is placed on a shelf in the current_ _Headmaster's or Headmistress's office._

_The hat continues to carry out its duty each September at the beginning of the start-of-term feast when it is placed on a three-legged (sometimes four-legged) stool at the front of the Great Hall_

_The vast stores of knowledge that the hat possesses leads it to make irreproachable decisions, although there have been cases where the students didn’t suit the houses that they had been sorted in, there has never been a case where the decision of the hat has been formally contested.’_

There was more to the paragraph but none of it was useful to Viscenya after that point.

* * *

_‘There has never been a case where the decision of the hat has been formally contested.’_

The same words had flashed before Viscenya’s eyes all day. Through her classes, through the walks in the corridors, every time she closed her eyes, the words would spring back up in her train of thought. It all got worse when she realised that Harry was trying to contact her throughout the day. She’d see him sneaking glances at her as she made her way to other classes, even during lunch she could feel his gaze burning holes in her head.

But she had vowed that she’d only talk to him after she had good news, and now the prospect of even moderate news seemed bleak. Also, she was just too sad to even try talking to someone, let alone a person whom she was sure would judge her.

Although now as she walked towards her Potions class, which was right after lunch she couldn’t help but feel that talking to Harry was inevitable. After having been avoided for the entire day, she knew her best friend enough to know that he’d find _some_ way to get to her.

With a sigh she stepped into the classroom, it was dark, incredibly so. The thick black curtains were completely drawn and there was no scope of any light besides that of the dim candles, lighting up the room.

It was also cold, but from her experience in brewing potions, Viscenya knew that if they were allowed to brew potions on their first day, the classroom would heat up in no time. She could already see a few cauldrons simmering away at low heat. She ran her gaze over the walls and saw that several jars lined the stone.

Some jars had frogs kept in them while some had magical creatures that Viscenya wasn’t familiar with. At the back of the class, she could see that there was a door that led to what she could only assume was the storeroom.

Despite the gloom she had been feeling all day, she couldn’t help but feel giddy at the thought of using the vast stores of ingredients that Aunt Lily had told her about.

The seats had not been filled yet, but there were still a lot of students who had shown up. Viscenya took her seat somewhere in the middle of a row and waited. She kept her ears strained for some clue of harry having entered the class, but she found none, either he was being incredibly quiet, or he was just late. And eleven years of their friendship made her believe the latter.

At the very last minute, a gaggle of Gryffindors came inside the class with their loud boisterous laughs announcing their arrival. And surely, Viscenya heard Harry among them.

There was some shuffling, the sounds of chairs scraping the stone, Viscenya could hear the girl sitting beside her whisper something indignantly to someone else before she too got up and left her seat, curious to see what was going on she turned to her left and saw Harry, sitting there wearing a triumphant grin.

Viscenya whipped around to see who it was who gave away her seat for Harry and found that it was the Granger girl from before. Now it was her turn to be indignant, how dare Granger not understand her mission to avoid Harry!

She huffed and she puffed as she turned to face Harry again, and just as before she was met with the sight of him smiling, “Found you!” he said as he ' _booped'_ her nose with his finger, and Viscenya cringed at the action.

Before she could get her word in, the door to the classroom swung open with a bang and their Potions teacher entered the room with a swish of his robes very dramatically. The candles dimmed impossibly lower and then he began to speak.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought about this, reviews and constructive criticism is always welcome.   
> Also, do you think Viscenya will fit in with the Slytherin gang further down the lane? 
> 
> Comments, kudos and your continued support warm my heart!!


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